


The Disappearance of Frisk Dreemurr

by PastaGuy



Category: Deltarune (Video Game), Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Adult Asriel Dreemurr, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Ambiguous-Gender Kris (Deltarune), Angst, Flowey (Undertale) Being an Asshole, Gender-Neutral Frisk (Undertale), Minor Alphys/Undyne (Undertale), Minor Asgore Dreemurr/Toriel, Minor Noelle Holiday/Susie (Deltarune), Multi, Mystery, Nightmares, Older Asriel Dreemurr, POV Asriel Dreemurr, Parent Asgore Dreemurr, Parent Toriel (Undertale), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Post-Undertale Pacifist Route, Self-Esteem Issues, Self-Hatred, Timeline Shenanigans, Undyne (Undertale) Swears
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-24
Updated: 2020-07-26
Packaged: 2021-02-28 00:41:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 23,271
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22564906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PastaGuy/pseuds/PastaGuy
Summary: They felt like they were falling. Falling deeper and deeper into darkness, falling away from the world and the people he cared so much about. But then he woke up…Asriel Dreemurr: The Prince of All Monsters had completed his role in the story. He had broken the barrier and helped monsters go free but was cursed to once again turn back into a soulless flower, a husk of his former self.However, something has gone wrong because instead of waking up as Flowey Asriel has woken up in both a body and room he does not recognize. Asriel has woken up in the body of his alternate college-aged self that appears to be the golden boy of his family.He’s now in a world where he’s seemed to have gotten everything he’s ever wanted but Asriel knows probably better than anyone else that something like this is too good to be true. Something about this world is wrong and he’s going to find out what it is.
Relationships: Alphys/Undyne (Undertale), Asgore Dreemurr/Toriel, Noelle Holiday/Susie (Deltarune)
Comments: 26
Kudos: 78





	1. An Unfamiliar Reality

It’s the end. The end of a long journey of a determined human’s odyssey through the underground. A journey that has united all monsters into finally breaking the barrier that has imprisoned them for so long. 

However, it wasn’t this human that broke the barrier. No, the monster who broke the barrier had been mourned for years prior and was thought long dead by most. Someone who had for a long time only been a shell of his former self. An autonomous shell that was maniacally cruel and pragmatically vicious. A shell that, in many possibilities, caused more pain than any other monster or human had in the underground. 

And yet the human still forgave him. The human held him in their arms, embracing him even when by all rights they shouldn’t. This monster could, of course, only weep as he was forgiven despite what was done. Weep in relief that someone, anyone, would forgive him after all he had done. 

That monster who had broken the barrier, who had saved all monster kind was, however, still soulless due to his sacrifice in destroying the barrier, cursed to remain shackled to his determined flowery prison, damned to squirm within his own skin that he hated, a fate which most would consider worse than death.

This monster was Asriel Dreemurr: The Prince of All Monsters. The prince who had died because of a plot hatched by their adoptive sibling to free all monsters. A plot that would have free them but would all cost a price he was not willing to pay. 

Asriel knew his fate and was at the very least ready to show himself as accepting of it. Even though in his heart of hearts he would wish for nothing more than to once again walk with those he had cared for. To walk on the surface with his mother and father, to be a part of a family again.

So what if he got what he wanted…

The Disappearance of Frisk Dreemurr

Prologue: An Unfamiliar Reality

Asriel stood alone at the beginning of the ruins; rays of sunlight streaked across the vacuum of the cavern glinting off freshly shed tears. The golden flowers’ petals tickled his padded feet as he choked out a chuckle. Others seemed to rustle in a nonexistent wind, whispering sweet nothings in his ear. Blinking a few times before wiping his eyes, he stared upward at the ceiling observing the natural light of the surface, wanting to solidify this moment in his memory. 

“Not long now.” he thought to himself. 

Descending upon his mind was a pressure diluting all his thoughts; he was only able to catch a few snippets of his own internal dialogue as his thoughts raced past him. He thought to himself all of the things he wished he could see or do, all of the memories he wished he could make. Asriel then remembered the human child that had saved and comforted him. His thoughts consolidated into the face of the pacifist who against all odds went through the entire underground without harming any monsters. 

“Frisk…” his mouth turned upwards in a light smile. “The only reason I can accept any of this is because of you. I know if I’m leaving my Mom and Dad behind with you they’ll be alright. Everyone will be alright because of you. Heh, Mom will probably adopt you soon.” 

He didn’t know why but the idea of his mother adopting Frisk widened his smile. “Their name would be Frisk Dreemurr then. Heh, Frisk Dreemurr that sounds like such a nice name. It’s almost like it was meant to be their last name or something.” he thought to himself as the image of Frisk living with his parents played in his mind. “They’ll be so happy to have you as their child Frisk.” 

The young prince suddenly felt a spike of pain from his chest which began to seemingly fly across the rest of his body. Grunting in pain, he found his knee meeting the ground; he sucked in a sharp breath, his hand gripping his chest. “It’s started,” the words dripped from his muzzle; a memory surfaced from long ago of tears streaming down faces and a stabbing pain eerily similar to the one he was experiencing now. A weight was in his arms as he whined,” Mommy, Daddy?” before collapsing. 

He laid himself onto the ground, curling up into a fetal position with his tail plastered to his back wanting to try and be as comfortable as possible. He shivered and stared up toward the high ceiling trying to remember the light of the world that he now knew the monsters would inhabit. “I wish I could be there with everyone.” Asriel thought to himself. “I wish I could see the sun and live with all of them together. But no, I know I can’t stop this.” 

Asriel took one last long look up at the golden sunlight and pulled his eyes shut. The prince felt a chill run up his spine. “It’s so cold. I remember it being cold.” he thought to himself as he felt himself fall away more and more. “So cold…”

He silently mouthed the phrase over and over again; as he began to feel nothing but this feeling with everything else being snuffed out by the darkness enclosing in on him. All of his senses grew duller and duller with him starting to feel weightless. “Cold...cold...cold…”

“Cold…”

“Cold…”

“Cold…”

“Cold!” 

Suddenly all of Asriel’s senses and feelings in his body came flooding back. The darkness that he felt surrounded by quickly fell away as the light began to shine down on him. The feeling of weightlessness faded feeling like he was pulled down like an anchor was tied to him. 

Asriel gasped as his eyes shot open. He jolted upward from where he was laying, sitting up. He quickly breathed in and out as he sat there, bewildered. 

As he quickly breathed in and out Asriel realized something. His breathing sounded off like it was in a lower tone than usual. He then noticed that he could feel his chest rising up and down as he panted and that it felt larger than it did before.

Asriel quickly turned his head down to see what was going on. His eyes widened as he saw that his body was now much larger than it had been. “What?” he said to himself, astonished. He stared down at himself with him lifting his hands closer to his eyes. “What’s going on? These aren’t my hands, they can’t be, right?” 

The young prince could feel his head start to spin as he tried to comprehend what was happening. Suddenly he realized that he was not only just in a completely different body but also sitting in what appeared to be a bed, something far removed from the flowers he was just laying on. 

He quickly looked up and turned his head from side to side looking at the room. He saw that it appeared to be a small room. It had two beds, two desks with various objects on each of them such as computers with a small TV on one of them, a wall lined with posters with what appeared to be some sort of movie poster and a video game poster about the legend of somebody he didn’t recognize, a sink, small refrigerator, a microwave, and two doors that led places Asriel had no idea what they were. 

“Where am I?” Asriel thought to himself confused. “A few minutes ago I was on a flower bed and now I am somehow here, looking like this? What happened?” 

Asriel sat there for a moment trying to figure out what was going on. His brain filled with thousands upon thousands of questions. “How can I be here? Why am I here? Why am I older? What does any of this mean?” he said to himself internally. 

The questions just kept spinning and spinning inside his head. He began to quickly breathe in and out again, the stress beginning to get to him. He wanted all of this to just stop. He wanted for the whole world to stop being what it was and for it to go back to making sense, for anything to just make some amount of sense. 

However, all of those thoughts were suddenly put on the back burner when Asriel heard one of the doors open he had seen from behind. Asriel quickly looked up and saw what appeared to be a monster step out of the bathroom and walk over to him with them standing over his bed. “Morning, Az.” the monster greeted him. 

Asriel stared at the monster paralyzed, not sure what to say. He had never seen this monster before in his life which was startling to him than most because he thought he had met every single monster there was trapped in the underground. The monster looked like an anthropomorphic dark grey wolf monster which Asriel had seen before but they certainly weren’t as buff and were actually somewhat clothed. 

“What’s wrong? Why are you staring at me like that?” The wolf monster asked him. 

“Oh it’s-” Asriel began to speak but suddenly stopped when he heard the voice that came out of his mouth. The voice surprised him with how odd it sounded, it being deeper than his normal child voice and higher pitched than the god of hyperdeath form. 

“It’s…?” the wolf monster asked him, confused.

Asriel stared at him for a moment not saying a word. His mind felt repulsed from speaking again with that voice. It felt like he was using a stranger's voice like he was a thief that had somehow stolen it. However he knew he had to say something to him, he couldn’t just keep staring at him awkwardly like this. 

“It’s nothing…”Asriel said aloud, still slightly taken aback by his voice. 

The wolf monster grimaced, staring at Asriel confused. “Alright if you say so Az,” he told him. The monster then walked over to what seemed to be their desk and turned on his computer. 

Asriel meanwhile sat there on the bed still wondering what to do next. “Who is this guy? And why does he keep calling me Az? I never had a nickname like that.” Asriel wondered to himself. “Is he like some sort of friend or something? We must be pretty close considering we seem to be sharing a room together. Wait a minute I’m older, I’m in a pretty plain room with a roommate? Am I at some sort of college or something? Is that where I am?”

That idea seemed so odd to Asriel. The idea that he had woken up in a college dorm room, a place that he had only seen in anime and other tv shows from the surface. “I’ve somehow woken up in some alternate world where I am this alternative version of myself at college and somehow all grown up.” he thought to himself. “How can I be here? What could’ve caused me to wake up in such a strange world? Is it something to do with me breaking the barrier? Did me absorbing everyone’s souls somehow give me the power to transfer my consciousness here? No, that doesn’t make any sense.”

Asriel’s mind continued to swirl with thoughts and ideas trying to speculate how he had gotten there. However, suddenly a horrible thought came to the forefront of his mind. “Wait a minute...If I'm in this body does that mean... this other version of me is now in my body?” Asriel told himself, slightly hysterical. A cold chill then ran down his spine. “That means he could have woken up as me back in the underground as him. They could be terrified like I was when I woke up as a flower, he would be so alone and confused wondering what’s going on.”

The young prince felt himself begin to spiral downward as his mind began to think of the pain he was possibly causing that different version of himself. He also realized however he wasn’t much better off. He was still in strange reality without any means of getting back home if that was even possible at this point. He sat there in absolute terror, barely holding on to his sanity. 

“Hey!” A voice suddenly exclaimed.

Asriel suddenly slammed back down to reality at the sound of the voice. He quietly gasped and quickly turned his head and saw his roommate from before.

“You alright Az?” he asked. “You look terrified.” 

“Um...I…” he began to say, still slightly in shock. However, Asriel had no idea what to tell him. He stared at him as his mind went blank. He obviously couldn’t tell him the truth, they wouldn’t believe him. 

“I’m fine I just...I just need to go clear my head.” Asriel explained while placing a hand on his forehead.

“Well if you’re feeling like that I think a shower might do you some good. It always helps me calm down.” The wolf monster suggested to him with a small smile. 

Asriel thought that actually did sound nice right now. “Yeah that sounds good...I’ll try that,” he said with a nod. 

Asriel then slowly got up from his bed, him feeling rather odd moving such long legs. He stood up and was slightly overwhelmed by how tall he was. Only in the god of hyperdeath form was he ever this tall and during that time he had other things to occupy his mind. 

He turned his head to the side and saw his path forward. He put his fur-covered foot forward and was set slightly off balance when he tried to walk but quickly recovered. For the first one to two steps, he felt like he was walking on stilts. He soon got the hang of it however and made his way to the back of the room toward the sink. 

He reached the sink and with it, the big mirror stuck to the wall. Asriel turned his head and was shocked to see what lay before him. Staring back at him was a tall boss monster with vivid green eyes and longhorns.

He leaned forward to get a better look at himself. He saw that he was wearing a black tank top and grey underwear. The tank top was stuck to his chest well enough where he noticed he was somewhat muscular while still relatively skinny. He also noticed that on the top of his head there were a few golden hairs that were just like his father’s. His snout was longer too and his teeth looked sharper. 

Asriel looked all over himself and saw that pretty much everything about him had changed and grown in ways he hadn’t expected. The only thing that hadn’t really changed was his vivid green eyes. The eyes that had seen him do so much. He could still look into him and realize that he was still him even if the rest of his body had changed. 

It was comforting, to say the least, to know that there was a part of him that was still somewhat recognizable after all of the changes. Something physically about him that reminded him of who he was. To bound him somewhat to this world. 

After looking at himself for a while, Asriel turned around and headed to the bathroom door. He reached out with his hand and turned the doorknob. He walked inside the room and closed the door behind him. He turned on the light with white sterile light from up above illuminating the room. 

The room itself was small with it containing only a shower and toilet. The shower didn’t even have a tub; it was just a standing shower. The walls of the room were a yellowish sort of color that brightened up the somewhat blank room a bit along with the dark brown wood floor. 

Once he was done looking around the room Asriel looked down at himself. A slight blush appeared on his cheeks when he realized what he had to do next. “Is it really right for me to take someone’s clothes off like this? I mean they are just an alternative version of me but still.” Asriel questioned himself. He then shook his head. He knew he had to take off his clothes if they were going to shower there was no way around it. 

Asriel grabbed the bottom of the tank top and lifted it above his head. He looked down at his now bare chest with him slightly amazed. “Dang this version of me must be pretty fit.” he thought to himself. His chest was rather muscular like the outline he had seen while wearing the tank top but he was still slightly shocked.

He had strong pecs and quiet visible abdominal muscles. “Geez, what did this version of me do to get into such good shape?” Asriel wondered. He looked lower down and saw that his legs looked rather strong. “Maybe he was some sort of runner on one of those track teams this school has? I mean legs like these don’t just come from casually walking around.”

Asriel’s eyes looked slightly upward to the piece of clothing he had to remove next. The one that he knew would be the most embarrassing to him. Blood rushed to his cheeks feeling embarrassment. “Come on Asriel it’s just everything you’ve seen before but bigger it’s nothing to worry about.” he tried to reassure himself. “Just get this over with so you can take your shower.” 

The young prince averted his eyes and then grabbed the grey boxers. He slowly slipped them off of him as he felt the smooth fabric against his soft fur. They then dropped to the floor and Asriel was completely bare. 

He opened his eyes and looked downward. Asriel only looked down at himself for a half-second until his face turned a bright red. He turned his head up and looked to his side. “It is definitely...bigger.” he awkwardly thought to himself.

Asriel then walked forward toward the standing shower. He pushed away the shower curtain to his side and stepped inside the shower. Inside the walls were pure white with the shower head slightly above them and below it, there were the valves that controlled it. Shelves protruded from the walls with them holding pet shampoo and shower gel; anything that anyone would ever need to clean themselves.

Asriel adjusted the valves and started the shower. The water began to pour down on him. It was nice and warm just like he wanted it to be. He began to clean himself using the shower gel with soap bubbles beginning to foam up. He still felt odd scrubbing a body that he just woke up in ten minutes ago but after seeing his entire body without clothes he had pretty much passed that mental barrier. 

He contently sighed feeling a sense of calm wrap over him. “I guess that wolf monster was right. This is making me feel more relaxed,” he said to himself feeling less tense. “Now that I’m more relaxed I can actually have a chance to think clearly.”

Asriel then took in a deep breath. “Alright, so I woke up in the body of an alternative version of myself that’s in college and also on the surface. I have no idea how I got here or why I am here. All I know is that I’m here after falling asleep on the flowerbed in the ruins.” he said to himself, figuring that listing out stuff he knew would be a good place to start. “So what’s the cause of all this? Something must be up with the timeline because this doesn’t make any sense otherwise. But who could cause something like this?” 

The prince’s mind began to race, trying to think of something that would have caused this. Idea after idea began to pile up in his head. “Is it something to do with Frisk? Something to do with me being back in my body for the first time? Is it something to do with the determination from the human souls?” He asked himself. “Or maybe…”

Asriel’s eyes widened as he suddenly thought of something that made his mind stop dead in his tracks. “What if this is all some dying dream I’m having? What if none of this real and I’m still on the floor getting closer and closer to becoming soulless again? Maybe none of this is real at all?!” he thought to himself, terrified. 

Fear began to consume Asriel with his breathing getting erratic. He leaned forward as his head began to spin. He propped himself with his arm against the wall. “None of this matters at all doesn’t it?” he told himself, not even sure if he should trust his own surroundings. 

The water poured down on him as he stood there with him questioning his very existence. However, suddenly Asriel fell forward, his hand having gotten slippery from a combination of water and soap. He quickly caught himself from falling to the ground. It caused a shock to his system breaking him out of the downward spiral he was in.

“No focus damn it. I got to focus on what I definitely know instead of what I don’t,” he told himself trying to calm himself. “I am Asriel Dreemurr, the prince of all monsters, and something is wrong with this world. I need to find out what it is and how to get back to my world.” 

Those words made Asriel feel something that he hadn’t felt for a while. Purpose. A goal that he could strive for. Having something like that gave him clarity and motivation two things he desperately needed. Asriel turned his head up and stared forward. “That’s right I am Asriel Dreemurr, the prince of all monsters, and I will find a way back to my world.”


	2. The Mission

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for taking so long with this chapter. I got distracted by a variety of different things. (Along with the whole global crisis thing.) And I promise the next chapter will arrive much sooner. But without through a do let the journey of Asriel through the mysterious Deltarune world continue.

Chapter One: The Mission

Asriel soon finished his shower and dried himself with a towel. It took him a good amount of time considering the amount of wet fur he had to deal with. He had had trouble drying himself before but now it was worse from how big he was. “Geez sometimes I really wish that I didn’t have so much fur.” he thought to himself as he dried himself off.

Once he was finished drying himself Asriel wrapped the towel around his waist, wearing it somewhat like a kilt. He then picked up his clothes and headed out of the room. He stepped into the dorm room and saw his roommate looking at him from his computer desk. 

“Feel better after your shower Az?” the wolf monster asked him.

“Yeah, I really needed it,” Asriel replied. “Thanks for helping me out.” 

“No problem I have to look after my roommate after all. I, of course, do it because I want to be a good person but admittedly being a bit selfish I don’t want you acting like that. I mean it would be a real mood killer to come home with someone from a date and they see your crying mess.” he said with a cheeky grin. 

Asriel grimaced. It looked like this wolf monster wasn’t as pure and helpful as he had previously thought.

“What are you looking at me like that for?” the monster asked him. “I’ve said worse stuff to you before and you didn’t even flinch now you looked like you're offended or something.” 

“Oh no I didn’t mean to do that…” Asriel said with his speech awkwardly trailing off. 

“Geez, that dream must have really screwed you up. You usually have something to counter me when I say stuff like that.” the monster told him.

“I do?” Asriel thought to himself confused. He hadn’t really thought about how different this version of him was beside the physical aspects. “Wait, this version of me is older so they probably have a bit more confidence than I do. Damn, what am I supposed to do? If I don’t start acting like this version of myself he might figure out I’m not who I say I am.”

“Hey, you okay Az?” The wolf monster asked. “You kind of just stopped talking out of nowhere.” 

Asriel suddenly snapped back to reality. “Um…” He shyly replied. 

The prince knew he had to do something quick but he wasn’t sure what. “Alright, I need to say something that needs to show that I’m more like this other version of me,” Asriel told himself internally. “I got to be more confident but how do I do that?”

Asriel searched his mind for something that could answer his question. Suddenly however he realized that there was a time that he had acted with confidence and had been able to say a comeback when he needed to. But that wasn’t when he was himself. That was when he was...him. “Those memories are so painful I don’t know if I want to think back to them.” Asriel thought to himself feeling conflicted. He didn’t want to remember what he had done in the past as his soulless counterpart but he knew he had no choice. “If I’m to make sure this guy doesn’t find me out I got to use what I learned.”

Asriel took a deep breath ready to put on his mask. “Yeah I’m fine you dumb wolf just had my head screwed up a bit,” he said confidently with a casual smile. “I’m going to be fine, you don’t have to worry.” 

The wolf monster stared at Asriel for a moment, silent. Asriel looked at him intently trying to read his facial expression. “Please have worked.” Asriel pleaded to himself internally. “I don’t want to look like an idiot.” 

The monster stayed quiet for a second longer. Asriel tensely kept his eyes on him, waiting for his reaction. Luckily Asriel’s fears were suddenly put to rest when he smiled at him. “Good to know Az. I was getting kind of worried about you,” he said happily with his sharp teeth being shown in his toothy smile. 

“Thank god.” Asriel thought to himself relieved. “Looks like I won’t be found out, at least for a little bit longer.” 

“I can still tell you aren’t back to one hundred percent though. You still look a bit shaken but still, it’s nice to see you acting a bit more like yourself.” The wolf monster told him. 

“Yeah, I’ll be back to a hundred percent before you know it!” Asriel happily exclaimed. 

“That’s the spirit Az.” The wolf monster said with positivity in his voice. He then turned his back to Asriel going back to what he was doing on his computer before. 

“Looks like my impression of this version of me wasn’t perfect but it seemed to get me by.” Asriel thought to himself. “Hopefully I won’t have to talk to too many people this version of me knows because that means I might screw up and say something they would never say.”

Asriel then turned around and headed over to the dresser on his side of the room next to the bed. He had to get dressed if he wanted to go anywhere. However, before he could do that he tossed his old clothes he had been wearing into a laundry bag that was next to his bed. 

He opened up one of the drawers and saw an assortment of different types of shirts. He looked through them trying to find something that he’d like to wear. Some of them were simple t-shirts with one color, others were shirts that featured what appeared to be band logos on them, and there were some sweaters that reminded him of the ones he used to wear. He decided to go with a simple green sweater, something nice and familiar.

He then opened up another drawer and picked out some jeans from there. Finally, he picked out some underwear from a drawer below all of the others. He headed over to the restroom and got changed inside. Asriel finished assembling his outfit, opened the door and walked up to the sink. 

He saw himself in the mirror and was surprised at how good he actually looked. A small smile appeared on his face looking at himself. “Well I may be stuck in this body with no way to get home but at least I look pretty good.” he thought to himself happily.

Asriel then headed over to the empty desk. He sat down in the chair and opened up the laptop that was on there. “Alright if I’m gonna find some way back to my world I need to gather some information on it.” he thought to himself as he looked on either side of the laptop, trying to find the power button on the machine. 

Asriel found the power button on the computer and watched it as it booted up. The laptop screen then showed the login screen and Asriel suddenly realized something. “Damn that’s right I don’t know the password to this thing,” he swore to himself. “I can’t log in if I don’t know that!” 

The young prince started to quickly look around the desk to see it was written down anywhere. “Maybe there’s like a post-it note or something that has the password.” he wondered to himself. He searched for the password more and more, opening up the desk’s drawers but his efforts to find it were in vain.

“Damn it if I can’t get into the computer, what on earth am I going to do?” he asked himself. Asriel thought to himself wondering what he could possibly do. There had to be some way of unlocking the computer. 

Suddenly however Asriel saw something in the corner of his eye. Something rectangular-shaped sitting on the desk next to him. He turned to the side and looked down. “Wait is that a cell phone?” Asriel said to himself, slightly surprised. Indeed it was a cellphone. A medium-sized smartphone with a black glossy finish to it with it nested in a protective case. 

Asriel picked up the phone and quickly tried to find the power button. “Alright this might be a long shot but if this phone is like the ones back in the underground I might have a chance.” he thought to himself. Asriel pressed the power button on the top of the phone with the screen turning on. The startup screen booted up and there he saw something that made him sigh with relief. On the home screen, there was text reading: “Press home or input password.” 

“Yes! That means it can scan my finger and I'll be able to unlock it.” Asriel thought to himself happily. Asriel wasn’t sure how monsters were able to develop something like this that worked considering how many different types of monsters there were but he didn’t have time to think about that right now. 

Asriel pressed his right thumb up to the phone’s home screen button and the phone unlocked almost instantly. He was greeted with the phone’s menu screen that had a variety of applications on it with all of them displayed on top of a starry background with a galaxy in it. “Looks like this version of myself likes stars just as much as I do,” Asriel said to himself with a smile. “At least they have a few things in common with me.” 

Asriel looked at the different applications on the phone. There was the obvious call, texting, internet browser, and other standard programs. However, all of the names for the applications were different and some apps were gone entirely such as Undernet. “Wait there’s no Undernet on here?” Asriel asked himself. “Why isn’t it there? Does it not exist in this world? Pretty much everyone back in the underground had an Undernet account so why doesn’t this version of me have it? Does he just not have it or is it something more than that? 

Once again thoughts swirled inside Asriel’s head. However, suddenly one question seemed to counteract the importance of all of the others. “Were the monsters even ever underground in this world? Is that why it’s not there? No that’s ridiculous this world can’t be that different can it?”

Asriel couldn’t comprehend the idea that Mount Ebott didn’t exist. The place he had spent all of his life either in or around was gone. He had to know the answer and he knew where to get it without using the phone. He looked over at the wolf monster who was now quietly watching something at their desk. 

“Uh hey,” he said trying to get his attention. 

The wolf monster turned his head toward him. “What is it Az?” he asked him. 

“Have you ever heard about a place called Mount Ebott?” he replied.

The wolf monster looked at him confused. “Mount Ebott? I’ve never heard of a place called Mount Ebott. What is it someplace in that game you’ve been playing? Darkborne was it?” he questioned him. 

Asriel stared at him shocked. He couldn’t believe that it was true. The place he had traveled through hundreds if not thousands of times. The place where he grew up. The place where he had lost everything and gained everything. That place never existed. Not even known by a monster. A member of whose entire race had been trapped there. 

“Az you okay? You kind of just looked at me like I said aliens had started to invade or something.” the wolf monster asked him.

“Yeah just I thought you would know for some reason,” Asriel said with a smile trying to downplay how shocked he knew he probably looked when he said no. 

Asriel then turned away from him and back at his phone. “Geez, yet another odd thing about this world. Monsters were never trapped underground. I guess that means there was no war between monsters and humans. So monsters are now just integrated with society I guess.” he thought to himself. “Geez, that must mean the whole of history is changed. There were probably different countries, different wars, and just different people living different lives. Mom and Dad probably…”

Asriel’s train of thought stopped dead. He realized at that moment that he hadn’t thought of his mother and father ever since he had gotten to this world. “Wait if this whole world is different, does that mean they’re different? They could be completely different people from the ones in my world. I mean everything else is already so different.” Asriel wondered to himself. 

Asriel quickly opened up the phone call app on the phone. He had to know how they were in this world. What they could possibly be like in a world that already proved to be so divergent from the one he knew. He saw a list of names on the contacts page of the app. He looked through them trying to find Asgore and Toriel. 

“Where are they? They’ve got to be in here.” Asriel thought to himself as his eyes darted around the page looking for them. However then suddenly he found one of them. He saw the simple tile of “Dad” on the phone screen with a star next to it. He tapped onto it and was brought to a screen that showed a picture of Asgore wearing his trademark pink shirt with a white flower pattern. 

Asriel’s heart leaped seeing the picture of his father as he had remembered him. “He’s wearing his pink flower shirt and everything. Looks like he hasn’t changed all that much at all.” he thought to himself happily as he looked at the image of his father holding a potted plant. “Wait if he’s like that does that mean Mom is still like her old self?” 

Asriel quickly scrolled down the list of phone numbers to the letter M. There he found what appeared to be his mother's contact information. He tapped onto the screen and was brought to a similar page as his father’s. There he saw Toriel smiling happily as she sat at the kitchen table next to a freshly baked pie. 

“Mom.” he quietly said to himself overjoyed. Tears began to form in his eyes with his emotions overtaking him. He was so happy to see her safe and sound after everything he had been through, all the hardships he had to encounter. Asriel had the urge to press the dial button and call her but he resisted. He wasn’t sure he could handle it. He knew how hard it would be for him and he also knew how odd he would look, most likely sobbing by talking to his mother again. 

The young prince backed out of the page even though his heart ached when he did. He went back to the page that listed all of his contacts. He was about to go out of the app but then he noticed something. Under the K letter names, there was a star next to one of the names, the same star as both of his parents had. 

“Huh, that’s weird. They must be someone pretty important to me considering Mom and Dad had the same star next to them.” Asriel pondered to himself. “I wonder who it could be? Maybe it’s the roommate I have?” 

He stared down at the name. “Kris, huh? That’s a nice name.” he thought to himself. Asriel then tapped on the screen and brought up this mysterious person’s contact page. 

Suddenly Asriel’s world stopped. His eyes widened and he quietly gasped as he looked down at the page. He almost dropped his phone; he was so astonished. His eyes were locked onto the picture on the screen. “It can’t be...” Asriel said astonished. “...Frisk?”

Asriel was stunned. The image before him was so impossible. It was a picture of what looked to be a human in their later teens standing next to this version of him. Their bangs covered their eyes as they stared at the camera with a small shy smile as the version of him side hugged them. 

“They look exactly like Frisk but older. It must be them. But why are they called Kris?” Asriel wondered to himself. His brain was once again running at one hundred miles an hour. “And who are they to me? I know they must be someone important.”

Asriel wondered what he should do for a second. His mind filled with ideas. “Wait. If I know them well enough that might mean I have some pictures of them on the phone.” he thought to himself.

The young prince quickly exited out of the app. He scoured through the list of different programs on the main menu screen. Trying to find where the phone’s photos were stored.

Suddenly as his eyes scanned the page he saw the application labeled “photos.” He tapped onto the screen; opening up the app. On the screen, he saw an assortment of folders containing so many different images. All of them named a variety of different things.

Asriel started to scroll through the one labeled “Camera Roll”. It was a diverse collection with images that showed his alternative self in many different locales. Along with a bunch of other random photos that varied from short animated images from anime to some pictures of colorful nebulas. 

But interspersed between all of them he found more pictures featuring Kris and him. So many different images of the two of them hanging out together. “They have to at least be a close friend or something. I mean they’re in a good amount of these pictures.” Asriel thought to himself. 

Suddenly throughout all of the photos, he found one that didn’t just feature Kris and him. Alongside them was his father and mother and he appeared to be younger somewhere around the age he once was not long ago and Kris appeared to be a few years younger. They were posing for a Christmas photo together with all of them wearing tacky holiday sweaters as if they were a family.

Asriel was once again shocked. “Is Frisk? I mean Kris, this version of me’s adopted sibling?” he asked himself. “I guess that means that in this world I am their older brother. How strange.” 

Asriel was glad he had at least some more information on them but there were still so many more questions that peppered his mind. The fact they looked eerily like Frisk was the aspect of them that brought the most questions. Did they know about his world? Did they have control over this reality’s timeline like Frisk did there’s? Could they somehow be the key to solving their conundrum just like Frisk had helped solve so many problems for him before?

There was only one way that he could find out more.“I need to find them. Frisk or whatever they’re called in this world is the only one that might be able to help me. They are the only ones who might have the power to send me back.” he thought to himself. 

He realized his chances were slim but he felt like he had to meet them. Asriel had to know who they were and if they could help him. They were the only hope he seemed to have.

Asriel began to search through the phone’s pictures to see if there was some way to find out where they lived. It took him a while but eventually, he found something. His past self had taken a photo of himself sitting in the car as it drove past what appeared to be the sign for their hometown. “Must’ve been when he was moving out to this place.” he thought to himself. “Huh, this version of me’s hometown is named “Hometown.” Heh, what, did my dad name this place?” 

Asriel then exited the photos app and he searched for the maps app on the phone. After some searching, he found it and opened it up. He entered the name “Hometown” into the search bar and got the directions for it from his current location. It was several hours away from the college he was at. 

The few images the app provided it appeared like a small town in the middle of a forest, out of the way from any major roadways or anything like that. “Huh looks like in this world I grew up in kind of the middle of nowhere,” Asriel told himself. “It does look like it was a nice place to live though.”

However, as Asriel looked down at the directions he realized something. Something that was so obvious that he felt like an idiot that he didn’t think of it before. He didn’t know how to drive or if this version of him even had a car. 

“How the heck am I supposed to get home if I have no way to drive there? It's like a two-hour drive.” Asriel wondered to himself. “I certainly can’t walk all the way there. I have to think of some other way to get there.” 

Asriel began to think to himself of some sort of solution. He knew there had to be a way to get there. Suddenly he remembered something. He remembered the location of something he had seen before when looking on the map. 

The young prince looked down at the map and saw the location he was thinking of. It was a bus stop close to the town. “I’ll have to walk for about twenty minutes to get to the town after the bus ride but it’s certainly better than walking all the way there.” Asriel thought to himself. “Now I’ll just need to find a bus stop near the university.”

Asriel quickly shifted the map on the screen back to near the school. He saw that there was a bus stop close to the school. “Alright looks like I got a way to get to where Kris is.” he thought to himself. “Now all I need to do is find my way off of the college campus.”

The map he had on the app seemed to show him a good way off of campus. It looked like he’d first have to walk out of the dorm he was in then walk across campus passing by the school’s library and biology building and then finally past one of the two cafeterias the school had. Then he would be out near the school’s north entrance with the bus stop not too far away from the campus. 

Now that Asriel had a plan he quickly got up from where he was sitting. He began to look around the room. He knew he would need supplies if he were to head out. 

Luckily the room had what he needed. He went around the room and picked up a variety of items for his journey. He picked up two bottles of water, a few bags of chips, the charger for the phone, a pair of earbuds, and a backpack he found laying on the ground next to his desk. He packed up all of these things and started to head out the door. 

“Where are you going this early?” a voice suddenly asked as Asriel reached his hand out for the door. 

Asriel turned his head and saw the wolf monster roommate looking at him. “Oh uh…” Asriel awkwardly replied. 

“I thought you didn’t go out for lunch until twelve and it’s only ten now. So what is it?” he asked him. 

Asriel stood there not knowing what to say for what seemed like the thousandth time that day. “I just wanted to head out and get breakfast from the cafeteria,” he told him. 

“Oh really?” the wolf monster questioned him. “I mean that’s fine I was just wondering why you were just leaving so quickly. Along with you having that backpack.”

“I just have some books I need to drop over at the library and I didn’t want to carry them all the way there,” Asriel replied. 

The wolf monster stared at him for a second longer not saying anything. But then his eyes softened. “Alright well if that’s all it is see you later then.” the wolf monster said. He then turned back around to his desk. 

The wolf monster seemed to be like a very nice person and he didn’t even know his name. He had comforted him when he was scared of just existence itself. He had to say something to him. 

Asriel quickly brought up his phone again. He quickly scrolled his contacts, trying to find the name of the wolf monster. After searching through a couple of different contacts he found him. 

“Hey, Luke,” Asriel said, trying to get his attention.

Luke quickly turned around. “What is it Az?” he replied. 

“I just wanted to thank you again for helping through my little episode earlier,” Asriel explained. 

Luke smiled. “It was nothing Az. I was just helping out a friend.” he happily told him. 

Asriel smiled back at him. He then turned around and opened up the door. He stared out into the hallway for a bit. He then took in a deep breath and headed out the door.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Asriel made his way out of the dorm he was in. It took a while because of the winding halls the place had but he eventually found his way out.

He then walked out of the building after passing by the front desk. A very bored red-headed human was sitting at the desk with his eyes down toward his phone. They didn’t even bother to look up at Asriel. “If a serial killer were to walk past him he wouldn’t even notice.” Asriel thought to himself. 

He stepped out the front door into the outside world. It was a beautiful day out. The air was cool and crisp with the wind blowing messing up his hair slightly. The sun shined it’s bright yellow rays down on him. 

Asriel took a moment to take in his surroundings. The time he had spent on the surface before had been very brief so seeing the surface like this was amazing to him. Even it was just the parking lot right outside the dorm. 

He continued to walk and also observed his surroundings. The college campus he was at had parts that were built into nature with him walking in some areas having a large number of trees, that seemed to be a part of a larger forest that at one time covered the entire campus. It was a sight to behold especially with the golden leaves they had because of the fall weather. 

Eventually, Asriel made it to an area of the college that had the educational buildings. He passed by places such as the tech building, the poli-sci building, the astronomy building, and many others. “Geez, there are a lot of different buildings here.” Asriel thought to himself as he walked past one of them. “I bet I could spend a whole afternoon just exploring them all.” 

As he walked he also saw a variety of different students. It was so odd for him to see monsters and humans peacefully walking and talking together like it was no big deal. “Well looks like what Frisk wanted has come true. Humans and monsters living together in peace.” Asriel thought to himself. “I wonder if that means this version of me has any human friends beside Kris? What would their friends even be like?” 

“Asriel!” a voice suddenly exclaimed from behind him.

Asriel quickly turned, surprised by the unexpected voice. He saw a short cheery-looking bird monster girl with black feathers. She also had a white face with a dull beak. 

She walked up to him and smiled. “Where are you heading off to? I don’t usually see you out around this time of day,” she asked him. 

“Oh, it’s nothing I just wanted to get a proper breakfast for once,” Asriel told her while confidently smiling or at least attempting to. 

“Really? What, you got a lot of studying to do or something later today?” she replied. 

“Yeah, something like that,” Asriel explained. 

“Well good luck with it. I hope all that studying makes it so that you don’t miss our club meeting tomorrow,” she said with a smile. 

“Oh right, I wouldn't want to miss any of our club time at all. I mean it is just nice to talk about you know our stuff,” he told her. 

“Yeah, I wouldn’t want you to miss out. You always write the nicest poems for the literature club,” she said happily smiling up at him. “I really liked the romance one you wrote. I’m sure anyone who received one of your letters would probably fall instantly in love with you.”

Asriel blushed slightly. He felt blood begin to rush inside of him. He began to feel something he hadn’t felt before. “Oh I’m not sure if that’s true.” he awkwardly told her. 

“Nonsense I’m sure anyone would!” she happily exclaimed. 

Asriel’s blush became brighter at those words. “What the heck is this feeling inside of me when she began to compliment me?” he wondered as she continued to talk.

The bird monster then looked down at her watch. “Oh geez is it already that time?” she asked herself aloud. “Look I gotta get going Asriel. See you later!”

Asriel then watched as she walked away with her waving one of her bird-like arms at him. He stood there in silence for a moment. He then sighed putting a hand on his forehead. “Seriously what was that feeling I felt?” he wondered to himself. “It made me feel all warm and my heart began to beat so quickly-” 

His face flushed red as he suddenly realized what he had felt. “Oh god I was feeling attracted to her like romantically or...sexually.” he thought to himself embarrassed. “This body has already gone through puberty. It only makes sense that I would react like that especially since she was a pretty cute girl. One that would probably be pretty nice to kiss and…”

Asriel shook his head as his mind started to fill up with thoughts that were unsightly. “No damn it, don't think about stuff like that right now!” he shouted internally at himself. “Ugh, this is what I get with inhabiting a body filled with all these hormones when I hadn’t even started to experience them. I have no idea how to control them.” 

The young prince took a deep breath. “Okay, there’s no time to focus on that now. I got to get onto that bus out of here. That’s all that matters.” he told himself. “I’ll just have to find some way to control all of these weird feelings inside of me.”

Asriel then began to walk again. He followed the map and soon made his way past the cafeteria. His stomach growled when it smelled the food coming from there. He wished he could stop and go there but he knew he couldn’t. He had to stay on task. 

Soon he made his way to the north entrance of the campus. The entrance emptied him out to a place that was along the side of the road. A place that was relatively quiet with the road being surrounded by trees. He walked alongside the road on the sidewalk seeing a few cars pass by. Machines that he had only seen in movies or tv shows.

Finally, he came to the bus stop. It was a medium-sized bench surrounded by glass with the logo of the public transportation company on the side of it. He then sat down on the bench and began to wait. 

Asriel sat there not knowing when the bus would come or even if it would be the right bus. All he could do was wait. Wait and hope this would work. 

He pulled out the phone and opened it up. He started up the photos app and found one of him with Kris. He smiled for a second but then sighed. “This version of me got the life I always wanted with you, Frisk. Even if you do go by a different name I know it’s you. I can just tell by looking at you. There’s just a feeling there.” He told himself. “I promise I’ll find you. I have to because I think you’re the only one that can understand what it’s like. Being dropped into a world you don’t understand or know anything about.” 

He stared at the photo for a little longer until suddenly the hiss of a vehicle stopping drew his attention. Asriel looked up and saw a bus stopped right in front of him. “Well you getting on or what kid?” a gravelly voice from a lizard monster asked in a somewhat rude tone. 

“Uh, does this bus go to Hometown?” he awkwardly asked. 

“Sure does.” the lizard monster replied. “Now get on the bus quickly. I got a long shift ahead of me and I don’t need people like you holding me up.” 

“Yes, sir,” Asriel replied as he stood up and began to gather his belongings. 

“Geez, kid. Sir? I’m a bus driver not your Dad.” the lizard monster told him with his eyes rolling. “Now just get on the bus.”

“Yeah sorry.” he quickly apologized. 

Asriel then walked toward the bus. He made his way up the steps and onto the bus. Ready to begin his mission.


	3. You Don't Belong

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, this took so long. Exams and the world just being crazy for awhile has stopped me from wanting to write. But I assure you the next chapter will be out sooner! I am back into my writing spirit and I can't wait to finish the next chapter!
> 
> Also, I'm not sure if any of you would be interested but I along with some of my friends have started an Undertale themed podcast called "The Determined Podcast". It's a podcast talking about the game and the AUs surrounding it with special guest stars such as famous writers, artists, and other types of creators in the fandom. I'll link to both my Twitch and Youtube if any of you are interested. 
> 
> Links:  
> https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNIb6htpa18_apouCjweNRA  
> And  
> https://www.twitch.tv/pastaguya

Chapter Two: You Don’t Belong

Asriel’s eyes slowly opened. For a second however he couldn’t tell that his eyes were open because he was surrounded by pitch blackness. “Where am I?” he asked himself.

He quietly gasped as the voice he heard come out of him was back to his child's voice from before. Asriel then quickly patted down his body and realized he was back to his small child self. “What’s going on? Why am I back to being like this?” he wondered to himself. 

However before Asriel had a chance to think there was a flash of yellow light from high above. It was so bright that he had to cover his eyes. The light’s intensity faded and Asriel was able to open his eyes. He saw that there was now what appeared to be something that looked like a spotlight shining down on him. 

Asriel looked down at himself and now had visual confirmation he was back to the form he once had. Suddenly he heard something from his side causing him to quickly turn his head. His eyes widened as he realized he wasn’t alone in this black void. “Frisk?”

He saw a human dressed in the blue and purple clothing that he remembered. His heart leaped seeing them. The person he wanted to see most. “Frisk!” he exclaimed. 

Asriel ran up to them, his feet carrying him as fast as they could. As soon as he got up to them he wrapped his arms around them much as he had done before. He knew it was unexpected but he didn’t care he was just so happy to see them. “Frisk I’m so glad you’re here,” he said as he held them tight in his fluffy arms. 

“Yeah it’s good to see you too Asriel. I missed you.” the determined human said in a soft quiet voice. Frisk then wrapped their arms around him. 

“I was so worried and scared but I know everything is going to be okay now.” Asriel happily told them.

“Asriel?” They then asked him.

“Yeah Frisk?” he replied. 

“I want to ask you something. It’s kind of personal,” they explained.

“What is it?” Asriel asked them.

“How do you feel about…” Frisk began to ask. Suddenly they gripped Asriel’s back much tighter than before. So tight that it was painful for Asriel, him feeling their fingernails harshly pressing onto him. “Stealing someone’s soul?”

Asriel felt a cold chill run down his spine. He looked up and saw Frisk was gone. He stared at where they once were in shock. He then turned his head down and saw dust gathered in his hands. He was horrified by this and in revulsion shook off the dust from his hands. 

“He stole it…” a voice suddenly whispered. “He shouldn’t exist…He stole someone’s life…”

Asriel began to hear more and more voices whispering to him.

“He doesn’t belong here…” 

“He took his body and soul…” 

The voices began to get louder and louder. Their words were getting more filled with hatred. Asriel covered his ears to try and block them out but they seemed to slip through like they were yelling at him from his mind. 

“He’ll kill us all as he did before!”

“He’ll make us scream in pain and laugh as he watches us die!”

“He’ll destroy everything he loves!” 

“No stop! I won’t do any of those terrible things!” he shouted back at them with tears forming in his eyes. He then curled up into a ball trying in vain to block them out. “I am not a killer!”

“LIAR!”

“LIAR!”

“LIAR!” 

“Stop it! I am not lying!” he yelled out with fear starting to overtake him. “I am Asriel Dreemurr! I am not a heartless murder!” 

Asriel suddenly felt something brush up against them. He was scared to look up but he did. And the image he saw before them was more terrifying than he could possibly imagine. 

There standing before him. Beaten and covered in blood was the adopted human sibling he had once gotten killed. The human who was once known as Chara Dreemurr. 

“You liar.” Chara coldly told him as they stared at him with their eyes glowing bright red.

The voices got louder and louder. Chara stared at him with a look of pure disgust and hatred. Asriel felt like he couldn’t take it anymore. At any moment he would crack under the pressure.

“I’m sorry!” he yelled at the top of his lungs. 

But then suddenly everything stopped as Asriel’s eyes shot open. His entire body jerked up with him gasping. Asriel heard his heart hammering in his ears. He panted with his chest quickly rising up and down.

Asriel’s senses came back to him. He realized that he was back on the bus from before. He looked down and saw he was back in his alternative self’s body. “It was just a dream,” he said to himself relieved.

He looked around and saw the bus was empty except for him and the driver, who seemed to be more focused on driving than anything else. “Well at least I didn’t freak anyone out with me waking up like that.” he quietly said to himself. 

He then exhaled relaxing back into his seat. The dream had shaken quite a bit. He stared down at his body thinking back to his dream and the voices. “Those voices they said I had stolen this body and I know it wasn’t by choice but still. I can’t help but feel uneasy staring down at these hands that aren’t mine.” he thought to himself slightly disturbed. “What’s worse is that it feels right. This might not be my body but it looks so much like it could be. Like it is me that’s just grown up but it’s not. And I never will be like this even if I get home.” 

That thought hadn’t occurred to him. The idea that even if he gets home back to his reality he’ll still be trapped in a form that could not feel love. He would be home but trapped in a soulless husk of himself. A form that he had caused so much pain and suffering in. Was it really worth it to try and set things right when it would cause him to return to that? 

Asriel shook his head. He didn’t want to think about that right now. Think about the grim reality that he might face him once he figured a way out of this world. 

He quickly tried to find something to distract himself. He did as most people do when they try to forget about life’s worries and pulled out the phone in his pocket. He opened it up and stared blankly at the home screen for a moment, wondering what he should do. However, he remembered what would calm him as a child when he felt stressed.

“I wonder what types of music he has on here?” Asriel wondered to himself. He opened up the music app on the phone and saw a variety of songs in the library their alternative self had amassed. Asriel felt almost spoiled for choice. He saw songs ranging from classical music to video game music to movie soundtracks. 

He looked through so many different options, he couldn’t decide on just one. But eventually, he decided on one track from a video game soundtrack. The game was called “Kingdom Souls” and the track he had chosen was titled “Dearly Adored.” 

The song was a nice orchestral piece with a good mix of piano, string instruments, along with some wind ones. He then stared out the window. The road they were on was surrounded by a large number of trees. They all flew past with the bus driving down the road at a quick pace. There wasn’t much to see besides the trees and the occasional car. 

Asriel stared out the window feeling comforted by the music; a smile appearing on his face. It was a gentle piece but also a grand one. Something that made him forget the hardships he was facing if just for a little bit. 

However his mind did eventually drift back to his current predicament. He honestly didn’t know where he was supposed to look for Kris when he got to the town. “Maybe they’ll be at the school I saw in the pictures? It is a school day after all.” Asriel asked himself. “But what then? What am I supposed to say to them? And will they even believe me? Who would believe my story? It’s just so crazy.”

Asriel shook his head. He knew this was going to be difficult but he didn’t have any idea it would be like this. He felt like a moron for not thinking his plan through. He had to go galavant off to some town that he had never been to just based on a hunch. 

“I am such an idiot.” Asriel thought to himself while letting out a deep sigh. He realized there wasn’t much he could do now, his fate was already set.

Asriel continued to look out the window with the music from before still playing. When the song ended it went onto the next track in the album. He realized he had picked a good collection to listen to because the music he found was just about as enjoyable as the song he had first picked. 

He just watched the trees continuing to roll on by. Staring at the array of different colored leaves, from brown to bright orange. Even when he was feeling unhappy as he was he still appreciated the beauty of it. The beauty of seeing a large forest in autumn, something he would never have been able to see when he was trapped underground.

Eventually the bus came to a sudden stop. Asriel rocked forward and nearly fell out of his seat. Luckily he was able to catch himself before that could happen.

“Stop for Hometown!” the lizard monster shouted. 

Asriel gathered his things and got up. He walked toward the front of the bus. He looked out of the opened door at the front and saw the bus stop. It was a small structure with it right next to a three-way intersection. 

“Just follow that road and you’ll reach Hometown in about twenty minutes on foot.” the bus driver explained in his gravelly voice. 

“Thanks,” Asriel replied.

“Don’t mention it, kid. Now come on, get off. I don’t care if it’s been a slow as hell day for me I still got more stops to do.” the lizard monster explained in an abrasive tone. “Even if I probably won’t get anyone on this bare ass route.”

“Yes sir...I mean of course.” Asriel shyly replied. He then stepped down the small set of stairs on the bus. The door then closed behind him and the bus drove off. 

Asriel turned his head to the long road ahead. He let out an exasperated sigh. “Looks like I got a lot of walking to do,” he told himself.

He began to trudge along the road. The wind blew in his face with it ruffling up his fur. Leaves brushed past his feet as he continued to make his way down the path.

As he continued to walk Asriel couldn’t help but feel lonely. There was no sign of anyone around him. It was so quiet and serene but it was unnerving somehow. It reminded him of when he would go play in the royal garden before Chara came. He enjoyed his time there but every so often he would feel afraid by how there was no one there but him.

“I need to stay focused. I need to remember what I am doing this for.” Asriel thought to himself. “I am Asriel Dreemurr, the prince of all monsters, and I will find a way back to my world.”

Remembering those words made it feel like a mantra. A phrase to keep him calm and collected even when he wasn’t sure what he was about to face. It put him at ease at least for a little bit. 

He kept on walking forward. His feet began to grow tired from walking for so long on the asphalt. For a moment it felt like this road would never end. Asriel would just keep walking along an endless path that led to nowhere.

However off in the distance Asriel began to see the blurry far off the outline of something. It became clearer and clearer as he walked forward. Asriel’s heart leaped as he realized that the outlines were buildings. “Looks like I'm finally getting close,” he told himself with a smile.

Asriel's pace began to quicken from the excitement of it. The town fully came into view as he walked up. He passed by the sign he had seen in his photos. The one that displayed the name of the town.

He stopped and took a good look at the town he saw before him. He had finally made it to the small quiet town he had seen only in photographs. “This is it, Hometown.” he thought to himself.

Asriel was glad to finally be where he had spent half of the day traveling to but then he realized something was in his way. It appeared to be two blue barriers along with some sort of yellow police tape, the type they use to stop people from trespassing on a crime scene. However, instead of “caution” in big bold letters being written on it or something like that, it had something else written on it. 

“Wait, is that the phrase “NGAHHH!!!” written on there?” Asriel wondered to himself as he stared at it. “Does that mean what I think it means-” 

“Hey what are you doing punk?!” a voice suddenly shouted at him. 

Asriel quickly looked up and saw someone he didn’t expect. There standing about ten feet away from him was Undyne, the captain of the royal guard. Except instead of her being dressed in her silver-colored armor or black tank top she was dressed in a blue police uniform with a gold badge and everything.

“Oh uh…” he replied confused.

“Hey, wait a second your Asgore’s kid Asriel right?” she asked him. “Damn I haven’t seen you in forever.” 

Undyne began to walk up to him. 

“Yeah I came back to visit,” he explained. “I wasn’t expecting police tape to be blocking me when I got back.” 

“Sorry about that. I got to protect people from freaks from outside the town.” she told him. “There’s a lot of weirdos out there, you know?”

“Well she certainly hasn’t changed much.” Asriel thought to himself. He then moved past the barriers and ducked under the police tape. “Hopefully she’ll be able to help me find my family even if she’ll do it in her...Undyney way.” 

“So you’re back from college, huh Goat Boy? I thought you’d be in your car or Toriel’s if you were to come back. What are you doing on foot?” Undyne asked. 

“Well my car kind of broke down and I had to come back on kind of short notice,” Asriel said, lying to her even if the short notice part was true. “I had to take the bus here.” 

Asriel felt bad lying to an authority figure like this. What didn’t help was that it was Undyne who he knew didn’t like liars. And he knew exactly what she did to people that deceived her. “If she finds out I am lying to her, a police officer, she’ll suplex me into the ground.” he thought to himself, scared.

“Damn you had to take one of those rust buckets here?! That must’ve sucked!” she brashly exclaimed.

“It wasn’t all that bad. I mean the bus driver wasn’t the most...friendly person but it was an alright ride I guess.” Asriel replied. 

“Heh, that’s good. Still don’t trust those damn things though! While I was off at the police academy one time a bus broke down on me when I was heading to class from my apartment.” Undyne explained. 

“Geez that sounds like it sucked,” he told her.

“Trust me it did squirt,” she said, feeling displeased. “And that’s why I Undyne! The police officer of Hometown will never take those damn human contraptions again!” 

“Yep she's definitely still Undyne.” he thought to himself with a smile.

“Anyway, Goat Boy, what are you doing here on such short notice anyway?” she asked.

“Oh well...it’s just a personal family matter,” Asriel explained somewhat awkwardly. 

“Geez is something up with your parents or something? I haven’t heard anything about it.” Undyne asked him.

Asriel knew he had to come up with something quick. Something that he could tell her that would seem reasonable. “What could I possibly think of that would explain why I am here?” he thought to himself. However, after taking a moment to think he realized that there was still something that he could say that wasn’t necessarily lying. 

“It’s actually something to do with Kris. There’s something going on with them. Something that they wanted my help with.” Asriel explained. Undyne gave him a concerned looked. “Nothing too bad of course, just something that we need to talk out.” 

“Alright if you say so Goat Boy. Just make sure to stay safe out there.” Undyne told him, still giving them a bit of a worried look. 

“Yeah you too,” Asriel replied.

Asriel then began walking away from her, down the sidewalk. “That was close for a second there. I made Undyne wonder if Kris might be crazy or something.” he thought to himself. “I need to make sure to be more careful. Even if I can disguise myself to act like this world's Asriel I can still say something that might get me or someone else in trouble.” 

Asriel continued to walk forward. “It’s weird how there’s a road in this town but there don’t seem to be any cars.” he wondered to himself. “Then again in small towns like this, I guess you don’t need a car all that often unless you want to head out of it.”

The young prince passed by the police station and then the small hospital. He wasn’t sure where he was going but he knew that he had to find the school he had seen in the pictures. He crossed the street and walked up to a building with the word “Librarby” written on it instead of the obvious library. “Huh, well I guess no matter the universe people will still make the same spelling mistake,” Asriel told himself. 

Asriel began to walk away from it but then suddenly he heard the door to the library open behind him. “Asriel?” a deep voice asked him.

He stopped dead in his tracks from shock. He slowly turned his head around. Asriel’s eyes widened as he saw the person standing before him was his father Asgore in his pink palm tree shirt. “Dad?” he replied surprised.

Before Asriel could even think Asgore ran up to him and had his arms around him. He squeezed him tightly and then picked him up. He quickly rocked him back and forth shaking Asriel around. 

Asriel didn’t even know how to even react. To be embraced by his father was one of the things he wanted most in the world but this was definitely not how he imagined it. He did however appreciate it. 

Asgore loosened his grip on him, slowly dropping him to the ground. “I am sorry Asriel.” Asgore apologized. “I didn’t mean to hug you like that in public. My emotions just overtook me.”

Asriel’s eyes began to water, feeling overwhelmed by too many different emotions. “No Dad, it's fine,” he said tearfully. Asriel then wrapped his arms around him and pushed his head against Asgore’s chest. 

“Asriel I had no idea you’d be this emotional. I mean it’s only been a little over a month since I’ve last seen you.” Asgore said surprised. 

Asriel suddenly realized that his behavior was strange considering what his alternative version was most likely like. He unwrapped his arms and looked up at his father. “Sorry I’m not sure what came over me Dad,” he explained. “Anyway, I’m glad to see you.”

Asgore smiled. “I’m glad to see you too Asriel,” he replied. “I didn’t think when I got up to get a library book that I would see you of all people.” 

“I didn’t think I’d see you either. What were you doing in the library anyway?” he asked. 

“Oh just picking up a book on gardening. I wanted to see if I could get some good tips on making my hydrangeas bloom sooner.” Asgore told him. 

“You didn’t just try to look it up on the internet?” Asriel asked. 

“Oh heavens no. I went looking for simple gardening tips once and I contracted several computer viruses. It filled my computer up with advertisements and made me install so many programs that I didn’t know what to do with.” Asgore explained. “Luckily Alphys was able to clear it out. But from that day forward I realized that I should probably just stick to the sources I know how to deal with.”

Asriel couldn’t help but let out a quiet laugh. “Heh, looks like Dad in this universe is absolutely tech inept. Then again I don’t remember him being the biggest tech nerd in my world either.” he thought to himself. 

“Anyway I’m just so surprised to see you. I wasn’t expecting you for another couple days,” he said. “Why are you back here in Hometown so soon? I thought you would’ve told me beforehand if you were coming back sooner.” 

“Sorry...it was a bit short notice. Mom called me back to deal with something that happened recently.” Asriel explained. “I came as soon as I could. I guess I just forgot because of how fast things were happening.” 

Asgore gave him a sad look. “Oh I didn’t know Tori would call you back without my knowledge like that,” he said with his head turned slightly downward. “Guess we’ve grown more apart than I had previously thought. Then again that’s not surprising because of...” 

“Because of…?” Asriel asked, confused. 

Asgore looked up at Asriel with a pained look on his face. Asriel quickly recognized that face. It was a face that he had seen long ago in another world and another timeline. The face of a man who had had his heartbroken by the woman he loved. 

“Oh…” Asriel said sadly. 

At that moment Asriel realized that even though there were some things that he loved from his world in this one, there would be aspects that caused him pain. This world had seemed oddly perfect before. But now this put it into an entirely new perspective. 

“So even in this world, they’re not together anymore. Looks like even in a world where humans and monsters are at peace they’re separated.” he thought to himself. “I wonder why they’re apart. I mean I can’t exactly ask him why they’re split up. This version of me already knows why there aren’t together anymore. But still, I wonder what could possibly make them break up if it wasn’t Dad declaring war on humanity.” 

“I’m...I’m sorry for bringing that up.” Asriel apologized.

“It’s alright Asriel. It’s just...hard to think about it.” Asgore said with his words laced with a deep amount of pain. 

“Again I’m sorry,” he said with a solemness to it.

“It’s fine,” Asgore told him. “Now then moving past that unsavory topic...why has Tori asked you to come here?”

“It’s something to do with Kris,” Asriel explained. 

“Oh that makes sense. Kris has been having trouble ever since you left for college.” Asgore replied. “They haven’t been the same. There are so much quieter now and reclusive.” 

“I know and apparently there’s something up with them,” he told him. 

“I hope it's nothing too serious but if she asked you to come here it must be,” Asgore said.

“Yeah I hope I’ll be able to help them,” Asriel said to him. “I mean I can’t really call myself much of a good big brother if I can’t help Kris.”

“I’m sure you’ll do fine,” Asgore reassured him. “They’ve always looked up to you and I know for a fact you know them better than anyone. If Kris is having a problem I’m sure you can help them solve it.” 

“Thanks Dad I’m glad to hear that.” Asriel thanked him.

“You’re welcome Asriel.” he happily replied back. “Well, I know you have more important things to do than chat with your old man. You should probably head out and meet with your mother and Kris as soon as you can.” 

“Yeah that sounds like a good idea,” Asriel replied.

“But before you go I would like one more hug if you’d be so willing,” Asgore told him.

Asriel smiled. “Of course dad. I won’t ever pass up a hug from you.” he happily said. 

Asgore then once again locked his arms around Asriel. However instead of the showy and outwardly affectionate embrace from before it was one that was much more solemn and intimate. “I hope you’ll be able to solve whatever problem Kris is dealing with.” 

“Yeah me too.” Asriel said as he hugged him back. 

The two then broke up the hug and Asriel waved goodbye with them beginning to go their separate ways. “Asriel one last thing I wanted to ask you,” Asgore said, suddenly turning around. “Once you’ve met up with Kris and hopefully sorted whatever it is that's troubling them, do you want to meet up at the diner we used to go to?”

“That sounds like it would be great,” Asriel answered.

“I’m glad to hear it. It’ll be nice to finally have a meal there just like the good old days.” Asgore said while smiling.

“Yeah just like the good old days.” he told him even if he only knew “the good old days” from the few pictures he had seen. 

Asriel walked down the street still looking for the school. He passed by a group of trees that were planted next to the library. “It’s got to be around here somewhere.” he thought to himself.

He passed by the collection of trees and began to turn the corner. Suddenly he saw a building come into view. It was a building whose structure was mainly composed of brown bricks with a white roof. There were a number of white windows and two columns that held up a bit of the roof that protruded out from the building. And written in bold black letters at the front of it was the word “School.”

“I found it!” Asriel exclaimed to himself. He then headed up to the steps of the school and began to ascend them. “I’m one step closer to finding Kris. Now all I need to do is find them in one of the classrooms. Then somehow convince them to listen to me. I’m not sure how but I’ll figure something out. I hope…” 

Asriel reached the top of the steps and headed toward the door. He pushed the door open and headed inside. 

He stepped inside and walked forward a bit. He looked around and saw a pretty average set up for a school even if it was rather small. Lockers, a tile floor, water fountains, bulletin boards, and doors that led to the different classrooms.

“Alright I’m inside but I still don’t know where the right classroom is.” Asriel thought to himself. He looked from side to side. “Which way should I go? I mean there aren’t many ways to go but still, I have to choose.” 

He looked to his left and he looked to his right. It took him a moment but he decided to go right. He realized that even if Kris wasn’t there it wouldn’t take that long to turn back. 

Asriel walked down the hall toward the classroom on the right. He started to hear some noises coming from the classroom. The sounds of what seemed to be children playing. He remembered similar sounds from back in the underground. Back when he saw young monsters playing with each other while he sat alone not knowing how to join in.

Asriel got up to the door and peered inside the room through the window it had. He saw through the window that the noises from before were accurate. It seemed to be a classroom populated by a group of young monsters that were playing with toys such as multicolored blocks and stuffed animals while others simply drew with crayons. 

“Well this isn’t right. Kris definitely isn’t young enough to be in here.” he thought to himself. 

Asriel then turned around to head back down to the other hallway but then a voice made him stop dead in his tracks. A voice that sparked a great deal of sadness and joy. “Oh, that’s a wonderful rainbow you’ve drawn my child.”

“Mom,” he said to himself, astonished. He then turned around and quickly headed back to the classroom. Once he got up to the door and reached for the doorknob. He then slowly opened the door.

He stepped into the classroom and there standing before him was a tall female boss monster dressed in a dark blue outfit with glasses. Toriel the former queen of the underground, his mother stood before him with a shocked expression on her face. “Asriel?” she asked him confused.

“Mom…” he said with his voice shaking. He tried to stop his eyes from watering but he couldn’t fight against it. Tears began to flow down his face as he stared at her. Then without even a second thought Asriel quickly closed the distance between him and his mother and wrapped his arms around her.

Toriel stood there in shock as Asriel just held himself against her. Asriel felt so many feelings at once. It was a feeling that couldn’t be described. He was filled with emotions from the darkest sorrow and to the greatest happiness. 

“Asriel...my child what’s going on? What are you doing here?” she asked him bewildered by his actions.

Suddenly Asriel felt himself come back to reality. He had realized that even though his emotional reaction was probably to be expected it was no less odd. To him, it made perfect sense to the outside viewer a twenty-year-old boss monster was in tears because he had just seen his mom for the first time in barely over a month. Not to mention he had done it in front of a whole class of kindergarten students. 

Asriel quickly retracted his hug. “Um...sorry mom I don’t know what came over me.” he awkwardly replied. He saw the look on her face, one that was filled with immense amounts of confusion. “How about we go talk about this away from the kids.”

“Yes, let's,” Toriel answered. She then looked down at the children and saw them still looking confused. “Go back to playing, my children. I just need to talk with this young man quickly.” 

The two of them walked to a corner of the room where they could speak without interruption. Asriel looked at his mother and he saw that her face had turned from confusion to a more judgemental look. “Asriel I love seeing you as always but what on earth are you doing here?” she said with her eyes coldly staring at him. 

“Look just let me explain,” Asriel told her with him not entirely sure how to explain what happened himself. 

“Please do because I am very much questioning your actions,” Toriel said with her annoyance portrayed in her voice. “You’re back from college out of nowhere and you barraged into my classroom in the middle of a school day.” 

“I know it seems crazy but just let me tell you what’s going on.” Asriel pleaded.

Toriel sighed and her face softened. “Alright just please tell me. I’m quite confused,” she said having cooled off a bit.

Asriel took in a deep breath as he collected his thoughts. Trying to think of a way to explain himself to Toriel. However, he realized just like before he could twist some of his truthful feelings into a good lie. He hated to do it, especially to his own mother but he had to do.

“I guess I’m confused too.” he began to explain. “For some reason, I felt like I had to come home. I started to feel a lot of stress from being off at college by myself. I didn’t want to tell anyone because I know how I often seem like I have everything figured out but I just started to feel so alone there. I had friends but I wasn’t sure if I should burden them with the stress I was under. I didn’t want to drag them into my problems when they already had so many. I just wanted to come back to this small town where everything makes a bit more sense.”

“Asriel I’m so sorry I didn’t know,” Toriel said with guilt in her voice. 

“It’s okay Mom it’s not your fault. I was the one keeping it hidden from you,” he explained with a sigh. “I know what I just did was definitely crazy but I think you can understand why I did that.”

“Of course my child,” she said while gently placing her hand on his cheek. “I just wished you would have explained this stress to me or Kris beforehand. Without having to burst in and hug me in front of my entire class.” 

“Heh, yeah it was a pretty dumb decision,” Asriel said while rubbing the back of his neck.

“Yes, especially since all you had to do to get a hug from me is simply ask,” she told him with a smile. She then spread her arms apart, beckoning him to embrace her.

Asriel quickly wrapped his arms around her and Toriel wrapped her arms around him. “It’s going to be alright Asriel. You’ll get you through this.” she warmly explained to him.

“Yeah I hope so,” Asriel replied enjoying how the hug made him feel safe and sound. 

The two then broke off from one another. “Well, I guess now that’s all sorted you probably want to hear about what’s been going on around the town, right?” Toriel asked him. “I know you’ve only been gone for about a month but there have been some developments. For example, Rudy is doing better. He might be released from the hospital in a week or so if the tests come back good.” 

“Oh that’s great.” Asriel said not knowing who this “Rudy” person was.

“I know. Noelle will be so happy to have her father back at home. He’s been in that drab hospital room for months.” she told him happily. 

“Hey, Mom speaking of people kind of not doing so great I have to ask you, how’s Kris doing?” Asriel asked her.

Toriel’s gleeful expression suddenly darkened. “Oh I knew you were going to ask about them,” she said with the happiness drained from her. 

Asriel looked at her concerned. “What’s going on with them?” he asked. 

“Oh well you know how hard it’s been on them ever since you went off to college. They’ve always been quiet but now they barely speak a word unless it’s absolutely necessary.” she began to explain. “Kris has closed themselves off from practically everyone. They don’t have any friends or anyone they can talk with. And I try to engage with them but I seem to be unable to connect with them.” 

Asriel was shocked to hear what Toriel was telling him. He knew Kris was socially distant for whatever reason but he didn’t realize the extent of it. They seemed to be someone who didn’t know how to handle their life now that the version of himself in this world was off at college. Someone who couldn’t handle being alone.

“Looks like I’m not the only one dealing with loneliness,” Asriel said sadly. 

“Yes it seems so but it’s gotten worse in recent weeks,” Toriel explained. 

“What?” Asriel asked, confused.

“Kris has started to have some vivid nightmares from what I can tell. I hear them waking up in the middle of the night screaming.” Toriel told him, frightened. “They yell about losing control and hearing voices inside their head. And one time when I tried to go into their room and help them, for a moment I could’ve sworn I saw their eyes were glowing bright red.”

Asriel felt a chill run down his spine. For some reason the idea of glowing bright red eyes made them feel this irrational deep dark fear inside them. The image of them staring them down entered his mind and it terrified him. But then he realized why the eyes terrified him. The eyes she described were just like the ones Chara had in his nightmare.

“Asriel my child are you alright?” Toriel asked worriedly. 

“Where’s Kris now?” Asriel asked her with his voice shaking.

“Straight down the hall in their classroom most likely-” she began to explain. However, before she could continue Asriel hastily started to head toward the door. “Asriel wait!” 

“I got to go Mom. I’m sorry but I just have to,” he explained as he walked up to the door. He then grabbed onto the door handle and quickly opened the door. He looked back for a second and saw the look of shock on his mother’s face. “I’m sorry.”

Asriel then headed through the door into the hallway closing the door behind him. He quickly ran down the hall toward Kris’s classroom. “I got to get to them! I can’t afford to wait another second!” he exclaimed internally. “I don’t know what the red eyes mean but it can’t mean anything good if my dream is anything to go off of.” 

He got up to the door to the classroom and grabbed onto the doorknob. Asriel didn’t care that he would cause a scene for what he was about to do. All he cared about was getting to Kris as fast as possible. 

Asriel then swung the door open and stared into the classroom. However instead of seeing a classroom full of people he saw only about three monsters working at their desks. There was no sign of Kris anywhere. “What the hell? What’s going on? They’re supposed to be in here aren’t they?” Asriel wondered to himself. “Where are they?” 

“Asriel?” An unknown voice asked them. 

He quickly turned his head and saw where the voice had come from. A small deer monster girl standing at their desk. 

“Is that really you?”


	4. Reunion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this took...a long time. Look I am sorry okay. I've been lazy and dealing with just a bunch of stuff. Especially with school about to start again soon. (Remember when I was complaining about exams last time I posted? Two months ago.) Anyway so this chapter is finally out and also I have an announcement for my future writing projects. 
> 
> For those who don't know, I am going to be starting another Deltarune Fic that will be much longer. It's going to be my interpretation of the rest of Deltarune after chapter one. It'll be called "The Light at the End" and if that interests you I hope you'll keep following my work. If not and this is the last story you want to hear from me that's okay. I'm just glad you enjoyed any of my work enough to read it. :3 
> 
> Anyways I hope you all enjoy this chapter!

Chapter Three: Reunion

Asriel stood there in shock. Standing before him was a deer girl monster dressed up in a green and red patterned sweater with blonde hair. A monster that recognized him or at least the version of him’s body that he was currently in but he didn’t recognize her.

She was looking at him intently waiting for him to respond. However, he didn’t have any idea what to say. He had no idea who she was or their relation to him. “Damn it I don’t have time for this.” Asriel thought to himself. “I need to find Frisk. Then again I can’t exactly leave her hanging like this so I have to say something.” 

“Um yeah it is me…” he awkwardly replied. 

“It’s good to see you Asriel, it's been a while,” she said happily. 

“It’s good to see you too,” he told her. 

“Who is this girl?” Asriel asked himself. “She must be at least a friend considering how friendly she’s acting around me. Oh geez, this is just like with Luke. Someone that’s really important for this version of me but I don’t know who they are.”

“So what are you doing here Azzy?” she asked him. “I didn’t think you were coming back home until next week.” 

“Well, I had to come back quick because of some personal stuff going on with my family,” Asriel explained. “It’s something to do with Kris.”

“What? Something is up with Kris?” The deer monster said looking puzzled. “I haven’t noticed anything up with them out of the ordinary when they’re in a class with me. Then again they haven’t really been all that talkative lately so they could be hiding something from me.” 

“So she knows Kris and shares the same class as them. She’s even more important than I thought. But still, I don’t know her name. What could it be?” Asriel wondered to himself. 

Suddenly Asriel remembered the name his mother had said not too long ago. The name of the person that was related to Rudy. If this girl knew both him and Kris maybe she was the person who had that name? “Is her name Noelle? That could be it. Along with the connection to my family, it also makes sense because of the general holiday theme around her. There’s only one way to quickly show if I’m right or not.” Asriel thought to himself. 

“Yeah I know Noelle, everyone has been telling me they haven’t been talking all that much since I left,” Asriel told her casually, slipping her name into the conversation. 

Asriel watched her intently to see how she would react. Seeing if he had said the right name to her. Luckily for him, it seemed that it worked because she didn’t seem to react in any way to show he had gotten it wrong. “Good now I don’t have to worry about getting her name wrong at least. I would’ve looked ridiculous if I had gotten it wrong,” he told himself. 

“It’s sad really. They were finally starting to come out of their shell before you left.” Noelle explained. “But then they just sort of walled themselves off away from everyone. I feel sorry for them.”

“Well, hopefully, they’ll get used to me being away more. Can’t exactly make trips back to Hometown all the time.” Asriel said. “It isn’t exactly easy traveling here from my school. It is a three-hour trip.” 

“I hope so too. I want them to start acting more like themselves again.” Noelle said solemnly. 

“So where is Kris anyway? I thought they’d be here in class considering it’s the middle of the school day.” Asriel asked.

“Oh, they’re off with Alphys and the other half of the class doing an activity outside. Something about observing our own town’s nature?” Noelle explained. “Honestly though it’s more because of the fact that she probably wanted to do something to shake up the lesson plan for a day. She divided up the class because she knew she couldn’t keep track of all of us in an open environment. She made us do an alternative assignment. She also put Berdly on guard duty while she’s gone.”

Asriel scanned the room to see who she was talking about. He then saw sitting at what appeared to be Alphys’ desk a male bluebird monster with glasses. He had a somewhat proud look on his face. Asriel guessed it was from the fact he was in some sort of leadership position over the students. 

Even though from what he saw he wasn’t doing a particularly good job at looking over the people he was supposed to. There was a catgirl monster on her phone, a temmie was drawing in her artbook, and a snowdrake was writing ice pun ideas down in a notebook. It seemed like this “Berdly” was more proud of his position than doing anything with it. 

“Well, he certainly looks proud of himself. I don’t want to assume anything but something tells me that guy is a bit of a jerk.” Asriel thought to himself abrasively.

“Anyway Kris will be back pretty soon so do you just want to sit with me and wait until they come back?” she asked him. 

Asriel wondered if he should. He knew he had to find Kris as soon as possible but he knew this was a sure-fire way to meet them. He had been running around the town for a while and he wasn’t sure he wanted to go on another wild goose chase just to come up with nothing. Also with all of the walking around, he had done without being able to sit down his feet were killing him. 

“I guess,” Asriel replied.

“Okay let’s go sit down. You can tell me more about how it’s going at college.” Noelle said happily. 

The two then walked over to her desk. Asriel then moved around the desk in front of it, which was empty to face hers. He then sat down in the wooden seat, glad to finally get off his feet even if the chair wasn’t all that comfortable. 

“So how has it been going off at school?” she asked him.

“It’s been going pretty good. My classes have been going fine enough along with my clubs like my poetry club.” Asriel explained. 

“That’s nice. I’m happy college life has been treating you well,” she told him. 

“Yeah, I hope it stays that way even though something tells me exams might be a pain this year,” Asriel said, not knowing if the tests would be hard or not just saying something that helped him blend in. He remembered on the tv shows he watched about college that the characters would complain about their exams being hard.

However, even though Asriel was trying to keep the conversation going somewhere he could control it something was brought up that changed that. It was something that he’d been ignoring for a long time. Something that he had been ignoring for most of the time he had been in this world. 

Asriel’s stomach suddenly let out a loud growl. This caused both him and Noelle to stop talking. 

Asriel hadn’t realized how hungry he was. He had only eaten some chips and drank a water bottle on the bus, which was hardly good enough for a young adult boss monster. “Oh, shit um…” he awkwardly said. “I didn’t have a chance to eat much of anything before coming here.” 

Noelle smiled. “It’s okay Azzy,” she told him. She then reached underneath her desk and pulled out a lunch box. She opened it up and handed him half a sandwich. “It’s not much I know but it’s something to hold you over until you can get something better.” 

“Thanks,” Asriel said as he took the sandwich. He then took a second to look at it to see what the contents of it were. What he saw was a sandwich on wheat bread that had turkey, lettuce, swiss cheese, tomato, and what appeared to be a mixture of some type of mustard and mayo. 

Asriel of course having a childlike sense of taste wasn’t particularly for eating vegetables. His mother had always needed to coerce him into eating them before. However, he was very hungry and knew how childish it would seem to not eat something just because it had vegetables on it. 

He took in a deep breath and then opened his mouth to eat it. He bit down on it and to his surprise he really liked it. The combination of texture and flavors of the sandwich made it taste good. “This is pretty good,” he said after swallowing his first mouthful. 

“Thanks,” Noelle said happily. “I’ve been working on my cooking ever since my dad was put into the hospital. He was always the one that did the cooking at home because my mom was off working so much. I’ve had to do a lot of stuff that I haven’t before because of him being sick. I hope he does come home next week because it’s been kind of lonely at home without him. I don’t see my mom unless it’s at night most days and usually it’s just a short conversation before she goes to bed from how tired she is when she gets home.”

“Wow, that sounds pretty rough Noelle,” Asriel said, pitying her. 

“Yeah it’s not the best situation but I’m sure I’ll make it through it alright if I keep working at it,” she told him with a bit of optimism in her voice. 

“That’s the spirit,” he said with a smile. 

Noelle smiled back at him but it then faded. “Asriel speaking of people that are not doing the greatest right now. Is it okay if I ask what’s going on with Kris that made you drop everything and come home?” she asked him. “I mean it’s fine if it’s too personal but I want to know because I am worried about them.”

“No it’s alright I think I can tell you,” Asriel told her. “You see I needed to come home because Kris has been feeling lonelier than usual. My mom told me what was going on and I had some free time because of my schedule so I thought that I could...”

“Asriel?” she asked, stopping him from talking. 

“Yes?” he replied.

“Why are you lying to me?” she suddenly asked him. 

Asriel looked at her stunned. “What?” he replied confused. “What do you mean “I am lying to you?” I am not lying to you.”

“Yes, you are Asriel. I can tell.” Noelle countered. 

He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He had lied directly to this version of himself’s roommate, friend, and parents without being caught. Yet somehow Noelle was able to tell she was being lied to by him? It didn’t make sense.

“Asriel I’ve known you since I was five years old. I can tell when you’re lying or not,” she explained. “I can’t always tell straight away but still I found out eventually. So Asriel why are you lying to me?” 

Asriel was unsure what to say next. He wanted to tell her that she was wrong to keep her from the truth but he knew that probably wouldn’t work. Besides, something about her told him that she was trustworthy. 

He took in a deep breath and then let out a sigh. “You’re right Noelle, I haven’t been telling the truth,” Asriel told her candidly. “I’ve been lying to you since we sat down.”

“It’s alright Asriel please just tell me the truth.” Noelle pleaded. 

“The thing is I’m not really sure how to and also I’m not sure if you’d believe me,” he explained. 

“Come on Asriel it can’t be that crazy. I’m sure I’ll understand it fine,” she said trying to dissuade his fears.

“Alright if you say so,” Asriel said unsure of himself. He then took in another deep breath to clear his head. He wondered how best to start to explain his situation to someone who didn’t understand things like alternative timelines being something someone could interact with. “Do you know about the concept of multiverse theory?” 

Noelle looked at Asriel confused. “Um yes...why?” she asked. 

“So you know how in quantum physics there’s the idea of alternative worlds, right?” he told her. 

“Yes,” she replied, still puzzled. “Where are you going with this?” 

“Well you see…” he began to say before his speech drifted off for a second. “I am not Asriel or the Asriel you know at least.”

Noelle’s eyes widened. She looked at Asriel in complete disbelief. “Wait what?” she asked him. 

“Look I know this is confusing but just listen. I am from an alternative world to this one. A world that’s different in some ways but similar in others to this one.” Asriel explained. “I’m from a world where monsters and humans are separated from one another. Where monsters were trapped underground by the humans.” 

“Asriel that sounds absolutely crazy. I think you must’ve stayed up too late playing an RPG or something.” Noelle told him. “There’s no way any of this is true.” 

“Noelle I am not lying to you or anything like that. You’ve got to believe me.” he pleaded to her.

Noelle looked at Asriel with uncertainty for a moment. She stared at him, looking into his eyes to see if there was any sign of deceit. However, she saw none, and instead, she saw the eyes of a person who was begging to be believed they were telling the truth. 

“Okay I believe you,” she told him. “Mostly because I don’t think you’re crazy enough to dream something like this up.”

“I know it’s pretty insane and really confusing,” Asriel said to her. “I honestly don’t understand a lot of what’s going on myself.” 

“So if you’re from an alternative world how did you get here?” Noelle asked. 

“That’s the thing I don’t know,” Asriel replied. “I just suddenly woke up in this world like this. In this version of me’s body. It’s so strange. I’ve tried to think of what could’ve caused it but every idea I’ve had doesn’t explain it.”

“So wait what was this other world you’re from even like?” she asked. “You said something about monsters being trapped underground by humans?”

“They were at least. For hundreds of years they were sealed away underground because of a barrier put up by the humans,” he explained. “It was punishment for losing a war between us and the humans a long time ago.” 

“Heh, sounds like something right out of a fairy tale told to little kids,” Noelle said with a laugh that was a bit shaky from her still processing what she was being told. “A tale about monsters and humans with magical powers.” 

“Yeah it does but it was real. We were trapped underground for hundreds of years until a human named Frisk came in and saved us by shattering the barrier.” Asriel told her. “We were set free but for some reason a short time after I was pulled into this world. That’s why I want to talk to Kris because I think they might be this world’s Frisk or something like that. I’m not sure but when I found out about them I knew there was some sort of connection to them.” 

“So that’s why you left college so quickly out of nowhere and came looking for Kris,” she said, feeling a sense of clarity. 

“Exactly. I know it might seem crazy but I think that Kris might hold the key to helping me come back to my world.” Asriel said to her. “Since they were so important in my world I think they might be the link to it.” 

“So wait if Frisk is the parallel version to Kris. Does that mean Frisk was your sibling in the alternative universe?” she asked him. 

Asriel felt his heartache. He wished that was true. He wished that Frisk had been their sibling so much. “No in fact I had only just met them before this all happened. Like I said there’s a lot of differences between my world and this one,” he explained.

“Oh really? Then again that makes sense considering the whole of history had been changed.” she wondered to herself aloud.

“Yeah there’s a lot of differences like that, for example, my age,” he told her.

“Your age was different? What age were you in the other world?” she asked. 

Asriel knew this wasn’t the simplest question to answer because of how long he had spent in a flower’s body looping over and over again. So he decided to go with the age that he remembered being before all of that happened. Besides he didn’t really want to count that time anyway. “I was about eleven in the other world,” he replied. 

Noelle’s eyes widened. “Oh...oh my you must’ve gotten quite a shock when you woke up in a twenty-year-old body.” she awkwardly said. 

“Yeah, it was definitely troublesome. I was about half as tall in the other world and didn’t have any of these gold hairs on my head either,” he said while pointing to the top of his head. 

“Honestly I’m just surprised that you were able to act so mature and fool people like me,” Noelle told him.

“Well I was known for being more mature than a lot of kids my age,” he explained. 

“Heh then again there were some signs now that I think about it,” she said with a laugh. “You were kind of awkward when we first met in a way that reminded me of when this world’s version of you was younger. Thinking back to that time reminds me how cute you and this world’s version of you looked back then.” 

Asriel felt his face turn red and that same odd feeling he felt before came over him. “Uh...yeah I mean my mom did always call me a cute child…” he murmured embarrassed. 

“Oh my gosh, you’re blushing that’s so adorable,” Noelle said giggling. 

“Shut up!” Asriel exclaimed even more flustered. “How would you react if someone called you cute out of nowhere like that?”

Noelle sighed. “Honestly probably the same way but it’s still funny to see you like this considering what this world’s version of you is usually like,” she told him. “He’s not the most confident person or anything in the world but still it’s funny to me that someone who’s had multiple girlfriends is embarrassed by a girl calling him cute.” 

“Well that just kind of shows the difference between us, doesn’t it?” Asriel asked. “I’m all embarrassed because a girl called me cute while from the sound of it he would’ve just laughed it off or hid his feelings better.” 

“Yeah, that does sound about right.” Noelle agreed with him. “He always seemed to be at least somewhat on top of things. I guess everyone admired him for that along with a lot of other reasons.”

“But that’s kind of the thing. I keep hearing about how amazing this version of myself is and I can’t help but feel jealous of him.” Asriel began to tell her. “He has this life that in many ways that is so much better than mine. He has this perfect life that I wish I could have. I know that’s selfish of me but it’s true. I just wish I could have his life instead of mine.” 

“Asriel you shouldn’t be thinking like that,” Noelle told him. 

“There’s just been so much pain in my life that he never had to deal with. And I can’t help but want it even though I know it’s wrong,” he explained with his eyes watering. “And it just makes me wonder if I was doing my life all wrong.” 

Noelle suddenly put a hand onto Asriel’s shoulder. “Look Asriel I know that this is hard. I mean anyone who got to see another version of their life that appeared to be better would feel terrible. But that doesn’t mean your life was wrong or bad.” she said comforting him. “Besides, his life is not as idyllic as you think. He has to work very hard all the time to make his life possible and I can tell you that even though it might seem easy he’s actually tired a lot because of it. Also, he’s had to go through his own problems.”

Asriel wiped away his tears. He hadn’t realized that. However the more he thought about it she was right. Even though this world had a lot of things about it that were better compared to his there were still a lot of problems in it. This world’s version of him’s parents was apart and Kris had their own problems. It wasn't just their lives either, many of the people he had encountered seemed to have lives that were less than perfect.

Maybe that was the odd feeling he got when he first entered this world? It was a world that seemed perfect on the surface but when he looked into it he could see the cracks emerge. See the imperfections to it that made it not so ideal. 

“Yeah I guess that makes sense,” he replied. “Thanks for telling me that.” 

Noelle smiled. “No problem Azzy,” she said to him happily. “I’m always willing to help you out. Even if you are a different version of Asriel I’m used to.” 

Asriel smiled back at her. There was then a brief moment of silence between the two. Both of them looked at one another in this silence.

Suddenly Asriel saw Noelle’s ear twitch. She then turned her head to look behind her. Asriel followed suit looking to see what had caught her attention. 

Both of them watched as the door to the classroom suddenly opened. They then saw a variety of different monsters standing in the doorway. In front of them, all was a nervous-looking yellow lizard monster in glasses. 

“W-we’re back!” Alphys exclaimed with a stutter. “I-I hope everyone h-had a good time i-inside-” 

The meek lizard monster suddenly stopped talking. She appeared shocked as she saw the monster before her. “A-Asriel? I-Is that you?” 

“Hi Alphys,” he replied. 

“W-What are you doing h-here? Weren’t y-you off at c-college?” she asked him confused. 

“I was but now I am here because I’m looking for…” he began to say.

“Asriel?” a quiet voice suddenly asked.

Asriel turned his head. His eyes then widened as he saw a human in a green and yellow sweater standing a few feet away from him next to the crowd of monsters. A human with brown hair that slightly covered their eyes. The person he had been looking for since that morning. “Kris?” 

He got up from his seat and quickly headed over to them. Asriel then wrapped his arms around them and held them close. He felt his eyes water a bit but luckily he was able to hold back from full-blown tears. 

However, to Asriel’s surprise, he felt something damp fall onto his shoulder. He wondered what it was for a second but then realized it was Kris. Kris was tearing up from their hug.

“I missed you so much,” Kris said, choking up a bit. They were obviously trying to restrain themselves. They didn’t want to cry too hard in front of their classmates.

“I missed you too,” Asriel replied warmly. 

The two held the hug for a little bit longer before separating. Both of them looked at one another.

Asriel couldn’t believe he had finally found them. After everything that had happened that day from the tearful reunion with his parents to the odd interactions, he had with monsters he had never met. It had all led up to this. 

“Asriel it’s good to see you but why are you back so early?” they asked him. “I thought you weren’t coming home for another week.” 

At that moment Asriel wanted to tell them everything. Explain to them what had happened to him, about the underground, about his whole alternative life. But he knew he couldn’t, not now anyway. “I swear I’ll explain everything Kris just let’s get somewhere a bit more private,” he explained.

“Alright Asriel,” they said with a nod. “Let me just gather up my things.” 

Kris then headed over to their desk. 

Asriel looked back to Noelle who was still sitting at her desk. She was wearing a small smile as she looked at him. “Looks like you finally found them,” she said happily. 

“Yep.,” he told her with a grin. 

“Well, I’m happy you finally found them. I hope they can help you Azzy.” Noelle said to him.

“I do too. And thanks for everything Noelle.” he thanked her. “Thanks for believing in me.”

“Of course Asriel,” she said with a nod. 

Asriel then felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned his head and saw Kris. “I’m ready to go now Asriel,” they told him. 

“Yeah let’s go, Kris,” he said. 

The two of them then started to head out. 

“See you two later!” Noelle called to them.

“See you, Noelle!” Asriel exclaimed with the same amount of energy.

“Bye.” Kris quietly said with a small wave.

The two of them then headed out of the classroom into the hall. Asriel walked ahead leading the pair of them with Kris following not too far behind. 

“So um how was class today?” he asked them, trying to make some small talk.

“It was good,” Kris replied. “We got to be outside which was cool I guess. I had to write down some notes on some birds I saw.” 

“Heh really? Sounds more like something for an elementary school class than a high school one.” Asriel joked.

“Well, it was a bit more complicated than that. I had to also write about their place in the food chain and other stuff.” Kris explained. 

“Oh well, I guess that makes sense,” Asriel told them.

Asriel could feel the awkwardness of the situation. “Geez Mom and Noelle were right, they are pretty quiet.” he thought to himself. “I wonder why that is? Maybe they’re just a naturally shy person?” 

They continued to walk and soon came to the doors that led outside. They opened the door and headed out to the front of the school. 

Asriel then stopped and turned around. “Alright, I think this is better. Now that we’re away from everyone I can explain myself a bit,” he told them. 

“Okay good because I am very confused about what’s going on,” Kris explained.

Asriel knew he had to choose his next words carefully. There was so much to tell them. He had trouble with Noelle before but it was even worse now. At least with Noelle, he could be vague in some respects now he had to get into a lot more detail to explain what he had to.

“I came home for a lot of reasons. One of them being you Kris.” he began to explain. 

“You came back because of me?” Kris asked confused. 

“Yeah I did,” he replied. “Mom has been telling me that you haven’t been really adjusting well to me not being around.” 

“Wait Mom told you about that?” they asked. 

“She did. She told me about how you’ve become more disconnected with people,” he told them. “And also you’ve been having these dreams…”

Kris looked at Asriel shocked. “She told you about my dreams?” they said surprised. 

“Well, the little she does know about them. I mean there’s not much she can get from just hearing some screams in the middle of the night,” he explained. “Those dreams are what really made me realize that I should come and see you. So what’s going on with those dreams?”

“I...I don’t really know.” they began to explain, unsure of themselves. “It’s just been that the dreams have been so strange that they’re hard to describe. I don’t really remember them all that much after I wake up. All I remember is how terrifying they are. The amount of fear they place in me is just insane.” 

“Yeah, I can see why Mom heard screams from you then. But are you sure there isn’t anything else? Anything from those dreams you can remember? Anything at all?” he asked. 

“No not really...every time I try I just draw a blank,” they replied. “I keep thinking and thinking but there’s nothing there.”

“Well, I think I have one idea what the nightmares might be about,” Asriel told them. “But it’s going to sound pretty crazy.” 

“What is it Asriel?” Kris asked.

“I’m going to try and jog your memory of these nightmares,” he explained. He then looked Kris straight in their eyes. “Kris do you know a place called Mount Ebott?” 

Asriel watched Kris’s face. He wanted to see if there was any sign that they would understand what he was talking about. To see if this sparked any sort of memory in them.

“Mount Ebott? I’ve never heard of a place called Mount Ebott before,” they told him.

“Oh really? I thought that would help you remember these dreams somehow,” he said confused. “What about monsters being underground? The legend of monsters being sealed away under the mountain?” 

“Monsters being underground?” they replied confused. “I don’t understand. When were monsters underground? They’ve always been above ground.”

“This really isn’t helping you remember is it?” Asriel said with a sigh. “I thought this would work.”

“I’m sorry Asriel it’s really not helping me.” they apologized. “But why are you so fixated on these nightmares anyway? Are they really that important?”

Asriel realized that he had shown that he was a bit obsessed with this. He knew that he had to scale it back a bit. However, it was so hard for him. He wanted them to remember so much but they weren’t giving him anything. 

He took a deep breath. “I’m sorry it’s just that I know these nightmares have really been bothering you and I wanted to help,” he explained. “Hang on there’s one last thing I want to try. I promise this will be it.”

“Okay, I trust you Asriel,” Kris told him. “What is it?” 

“Do you know the name Frisk?” Asriel asked them.

“Frisk? I’ve never heard of anyone named Frisk,” they asked, confused. “Are they someone you used to know or something?” 

At that moment Asriel felt some of the hope he had when they found Kris fade. “You don’t remember the name Frisk?” he asked as he felt fear start to overcome them. “But you have to know it. It’s someone so important.”

“Asriel I’m sorry I just don’t know who they are,” they explained sadly. “I’m really trying but I don’t understand a word of what you’re talking about.”

“This…” Asriel began to say with him choking up slightly. “This...This isn’t how it’s supposed to be.”

Asriel could feel the mask that he had made for himself begin to slip off. The persona they had created was unraveling. Instead of the calm but concerned college student, he was starting to show what he was on the inside to Kris. A scared child who was lost in a world they didn’t know.

“You’re supposed to be the one that makes everything make sense! You’re supposed to make everything better! You’re supposed to save me from myself like you did before!” he exclaimed anxiously with his eyes watering. “Because that’s who you are. Someone who makes things right.”

Kris looked at Asriel wistfully. “Asriel I wish I was all of those things but I am not,” they told him filled with dismay. “I’m sorry.”

Tears began to roll down Asriel’s face. The hope that had been keeping him going was now gone. It had been shattered and now all that was left was the fear he knew too well. The fear of being alone in a world where no one truly understood him. 

“If they don’t remember anything there’s nothing for me. I’m...I’m all alone.” he thought to himself terrified. 

Suddenly Asriel turned away from Kris and started running away from them. 

“Asriel where are you going?!” Kris shouted at him. 

In truth, Asriel didn’t know where he was going. All he knew was that he needed to get away from everyone. He needed to get away from everything. Now that his hope was gone all he wanted to do was run away.

He ran as fast as he could down the street. The body of his alternative self was one that was very adept at running. He quickly passed by the trees next to the school and the library. He passed by many different monsters some of which shot confused looks at him as he ran past. 

However, to Asriel, everything was just a blur. He didn’t care where he was running to. All he wanted to do was keep running and running. 

Suddenly however he crashed into someone when he was about to cross the street. He fell down onto the hard concrete ground, face first. He felt as pain spread through the whole front half of his body. 

“Ow, what the hell!” a very mad voice yelled at him. “Watch where the hell you’re going!”

Asriel looked and saw a purple lizard monster dressed in a blue-grey coat and ripped jeans. “I’m...I’m sorry.” he weakly apologized. He then picked himself up off the ground. “I’m sorry…”

He then began to run again as fast as he could. Asriel had changed direction without realizing it in all of the confusion and was now running down a completely new path. He ran past a large building with stone columns with the label “Town Hall” on it. He then passed by a building with a green roof and stained glass windows.

Asriel just kept running faster and faster as he continued to try and get away from it all. He then got off of the road onto a grassy pathway surrounded by trees. The rows of trees went on and on as he kept running past everything. 

However, at this point, he could feel his body getting tired from all of this. He knew he would soon have to stop. He used every last amount of energy he had left to keep moving but then suddenly he felt his exhaustion truly set in. He quickly slowed to a halt.

Asriel quickly breathed in and out. His legs became weak and he sat himself down next to a nearby tree. He looked around and saw that he had reached some sort of clearing in the middle of the forest at the end of the grassy path he had walked on. In the clearing there seemed to be some sort of mound that pushed up the grass from the ground. 

He sat there with his head swirling with thoughts. He was confused and terrified wondering what even anything meant anymore. The one thing that gave him hope, the idea that he could somehow find his way home was now completely gone. “Please someone help me.” he weakly said with tears flowing down his face as he was curled up into the fetal position. “I don’t know what to do anymore. I just want to go home.”

Asriel's tears kept falling with him letting out all of the fears he had kept underneath the surface. “Please Mom, Dad, Frisk, someone, anyone help me.” he wept filled with sorrow.

He continued to cry but then suddenly he heard what sounded like footsteps. He quickly turned his head to see what it was. To his surprise, it was Kris, who seemed to be winded from following him with them grabbing their knees.

“Asriel are you okay?” he heard them ask.

“Kris? You followed me here?” he replied confused with him standing up. 

“Of course I did. You sort of just ran off,” they explained. “I had to follow you because I could tell that you were seriously hurting.”

“I guess that makes sense,” he said as he brushed away some tears. 

“You know it’s funny. I don’t know if you remember this but the tree you were sitting under is the same tree I sat under when I ran away on the first day of school,” they said with a small smile.

“Wait what?” he asked them confused.

“It was the first day I was going to school in Hometown. Some monsters bullied me during Recess and I ran away from the school,” they told him. “I came here to get away from everyone and I started to cry. I was alone for a few minutes until you came here to see where I had gone.”

“Kris I had no idea,” he said to them. 

Kris then sighed. “I knew it,” they told themselves.

“Knew what?” Asriel asked.

“You aren’t my brother are you?” they answered.

Asriel quietly gasped, shocked. “Wait a minute how did you…” he began to ask.

“It was kind of obvious. The way you talk and everything is like Asriel but something is missing from it,” they explained. “Like you’re just pretending to be Asriel instead of actually being him. So who are you and how do you look exactly like my brother?” 

“I’m...I’m Asriel but not the one you know,” Asriel told Kris. “I’m from another reality or universe or timeline? I don’t know. Anyway this morning I just woke up in his body out of nowhere. I don't know what happened that caused me to be brought here but I was.”

“Wow that’s...a lot to take in,” they said as they tried to comprehend what he had just told them.

“I know. It’s just that I am so lost and alone here. There are people here who I recognize but they’re different from the ones I used to know.” he explained. “All of that stuff about the underground, monsters being trapped there, Mount Ebott it’s all stuff from my world.” 

“Oh really? Then what was with the name Frisk?” they asked him.

“That’s because your counterpart in my world or at least I think they’re your counterpart was named Frisk,” he answered. “Frisk was someone who helped me a lot, they helped everybody in my world, they helped free the monsters, and they were a good friend. At least I thought they’d be if I had gotten to know them more.” 

“Wow, they sound amazing,” Kris told him. “And not really much like me.”

“Yeah, I understand that now,” Asriel said. “Before I was kind of blinded by my memory of them and I was kind of projecting. Heh, wouldn’t be the first time I did that to a human though. I thought if I was able to talk with you you’d be able to somehow make things right as Frisk did. I only now realize how dumb I was for thinking that.” 

“Asriel don’t be too hard on yourself. You were alone and scared and looking for something to hold onto.” they tried to comfort him. 

“Yeah but still. There’s just so much pain and fear that I am feeling that I want to stop,” he told them. “I want to go back to my world where everything makes sense. It’s all just too much for me here.”

“Asriel I don’t really understand much of this and I’m not the best at helping people but I’m sure there’s something we can do...” Kris began to explain with their speech suddenly trailing off. They grew silent as they felt something off.

“I don’t know if there is,” Asriel told them, unaware of what was happening. “With everything that’s been going on and all of these terrifying thoughts inside of my head. I just want everything to stop.” 

“You want everything to stop Azzy?” a voice suddenly asked them. A voice that was far removed from the calm low voice Asriel had been hearing.

Asriel looked over to Kris wondering what had happened. His eyes then suddenly widened from shock. Kris’ eyes were now glowing a bright red. Glowing red eyes just like the ones from his dream.

“I can make the pain stop Asriel,” they told him with a slight amount of glee in their voice. “After all, what type of best friend would I be if I couldn’t?” 

“Ch-Chara?” he asked terrified. 

Suddenly Kris’ body ran forward right up to him.

Asriel suddenly felt a sharp agonizing pain in their chest. He then violently coughed up some blood. He fell onto the ground with the pain now having spread to his whole body. 

“Oh god, it hurts. It hurts.” he thought to himself as he put a hand on his chest. He felt something warm on his hand that he had put there. He then brought his hand up to where he could see it and saw that his hand that was on his chest was now stained red. 

“Oh, Azzy you’ve certainly caused quite a stir haven’t you?” Chara asked them as they held a knife soaked in blood. “I mean you went around asking questions you weren’t supposed to ask, telling people things they weren’t supposed to know, and doing things that just ruin my perfect little world.”

“What are you talking about?” Asriel choked up through some coughs. 

“Oh it’s really not worth explaining considering the state you’re in,” they told him. “All that you have to know is that you’ve been doing things that you’re not supposed to and I am here to correct it. You’re just an error in the system.” 

“System? What system?” he painfully asked. 

“The system in which I created this world. Even though I did have some help of course,” they explained. “But don’t worry Azzy you might be in pain now but soon all of that will be gone. Because soon all will be set back to what it’s supposed to be. You won’t remember any of this. All of the choices you made, everything you've done won’t have meant anything. To put it another way, your choices didn’t matter. They never did because soon or later I would’ve come anyway.” 

“Why? Why are you doing this? Why are you doing any of this?!” he shouted at them. 

“Because Azzy this is what you deserve. This is what everyone deserves for what they did. Especially them.” they told him with hatred lacing their words. “This is my world and I decide who gets to play in it.” 

Chara then turned away from them and walked away. 

Asriel laid there bleeding out. He could feel his body getting colder and colder. Just like it had done not so long ago. He realized the inevitability of the situation. 

He was going to die again without having done much of anything. And he wouldn’t remember a thing, just like the monsters he had once tortured as a flower. 

Tears began to flow down his face as he thought of all of the people he had met. All of the memories that he had made that would soon be nothing but dust like him. “My name…” he began to say strained. “Is Asriel Dreemurr...I am the prince of all monsters…and I will find a way back to my world…” 

He began to say that phrase again and again. The phrase that had given him comfort in this world. “My name...is Asriel Dreemurr...I am the prince of all monsters...and I…” he said again with him reaching his hand up to the sky, the sky that he had always wanted to see so much. “I...I will...find..d .a way...back to...my...world…”

Then Asriel closed his eyes and there was nothing...nothing at all…

\--------------------------------------------------------------------

Asriel woke up. He let out a big yawn and stretched out. He looked around and saw his dorm room with his roommate Luke already at his computer. “Just another day.” he thought to himself.

He then got up from his bed and stood up next to it. “Morning Luke,” he said as he walked to the bathroom. 

“Morning Az,” he told him. “Have a good sleep?”

“Yep glad I can sleep in today considering how late I stayed up finishing that paper,” he replied.

Asriel then went to the room’s bathroom and did his usual morning routine. He brushed his teeth, styled his hair, and then went over to his dresser and got dressed. He then sat down at his computer and quickly opened it up. 

There on his desktop, he saw a galaxy for the background. He looked down at the time and saw it was half-past ten which was a typical college student’s wake-up time. But then he smiled as he saw the date. “Only a little more than a week until I come home to see Kris.” he thought to himself happily. “I wonder if they missed me or not?” 

“What are you smiling about?” Luke suddenly asked him.

“Oh nothing just…” he told him but then paused for a second as happy memories of his hometown flashed in front of his eyes. “Thinking about home.” 

He then smiled once again as he realized that everything was fine. Everything was just as it should be.


End file.
